MOSCOW, June 9 (RIA Novosti), Lyudmila Chernova - With small drones already available through retail outlets, US lobbyists are actively pushing for favorable laws on unmanned aircraft, blind to possible dangers, Ed Kinane, an activist with Upstate Drone Action, told RIA Novosti Monday.
“The multi-billion dollar drone industry promises to be very lucrative and its lobbyists are busy influencing our congressional representatives to pass legislation favorable to their greedy interests. There is an influential drone caucus in Congress. Small and cheap drones are already available online and in retail outlets,” Kinane said.
There are very real concerns about the use of civilian drones, and they are both safety and privacy related, according to the activist.
“With many more unmanned vehicles in the air, air traffic control becomes much more difficult. Besides, with no human pilot on board collisions with other aircraft are more likely. Moreover, drone surveillance and face recognition technology has become immensely sophisticated, - especially intimidating for demonstrators and dissenters,” Kinane told RIA Novosti.
He noted that drones are widely and increasingly being used in the US.
“They now surveil the US-Mexico and the US-Canada borders. Here in upstate New York they fly over lake Ontario and the Adirondacks for 'training'. The LAPD and other police departments are showing interest in using drones," he said, explaining that although potentially there are various legitimate domestic roles for drones, some of the proposed use is alarming.
“But most worrisome is drone surveillance (which would complement the NSA electronic surveillance) and surveillance of citizens by police and intelligence agencies. This can have a chilling effect on demonstrations and dissent, especially by minorities out of favor with the powers-that-be,” Kinane underlined.
The legal framework for drones is even further complicated by the multi-purpose nature of this technology.
“As drone use becomes normalized here in the US, enforcing any regulations becomes difficult,” he noted.
“From the ground it's difficult to know under what auspices a particular drone is flying and what it is doing. All the "good" drones up there may create a screen making it difficult to discern the "bad" drones,” Kinane concluded.
Tens of thousands of drones are used in the US for everything from farming to real estate marketing and movie-making, often flouting Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules. Unmanned aircraft are due to be integrated into the US airways by 2015, raising even more controversy with the general public.
