Drones incoming! The era of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles is upon us. They’re small, they fly around above us virtually unnoticed, and they can potentially monitor everything we do. Is this an invasion of privacy? What kind of ethical problems does this create? Should we be worried at all?
On Jan. 26, a UAV crash-landed on White House grounds. Officials later explained this away as the drunken misadventure of a man flying his friend’s quadcopter, so in all honesty, the connection to the remote controller probably broke or the UAV’s battery died at a really bad time.
It does raise serious concerns regarding the security at the White House that someone with a quadcopter can just fly over the fence. Apparently, the White House radar system was only capable of detecting large aircraft, so this little guy managed to sneak through. UAVs are even a privacy issue for the first family.
I’m an aerospace engineering student, so I’m in support of the UAV industry; however, I do have ethical concerns. Police forces have started using drones to spot crime (such as smoking marijuana) in the city. For clarification, the term “drone” refers to UAVs with very specific utilitarian purposes. These purposes could range from objectives as demure as spotting jaywalkers to those as belligerent as murdering suspected terrorists without a trial.
The United States government burns more than $51 billion per year on the war on drugs, and in 2013 the number of people in our prisons totaled about 2.2 million. That’s more than Stalin’s Gulag ever held at once. In 2013, police arrested nearly 700,000 people for a marijuana law violation. Law enforcement officers clearly don’t need drones to help them find marijuana users.
Quadcopters and remote-controlled airplanes are fun to fly and even to watch being flown by others. It’s a large hobbyist industry that should be allowed to flourish. The NC State Aerial Robotics Club flies a UAV in competition every year, and the process of building and testing a UAV provides invaluable experience to its members.
Obviously, there are some problems. I think that anyone flying a long-range UAV must submit a flight plan. Rules should be instated concerning UAVs flying over people’s houses, and taking pictures of people without their consent should be prohibited. Even though the idea of some UAVs invading your privacy is a real possibility, this newly accessible technology will take some time to develop and regulate properly.
UAVs, and more specifically drones, carry with them the promise of an interesting new industry and several age-old ethics problems repackaged for a new generation. But whatever your stance is on this relatively new technology, just be sure to ask yourself, “Is this violating anyone’s privacy or causing them physical harm?” I think if we are able to answer this question on a case-by-case basis, regardless of who the operator of the UAV is (including the federal and state governments), we can navigate this ethical minefield with ease.
