Austin Scott’s effort to rein in domestic drones

By EmmaZahn on Sat, 06/16/2012 - 7:10pm |

Last week, farming websites in Iowa and Nebraska were scorched by rumors that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had launched drones over local cattle herds. As things turned out, the surveillance – the EPA was looking for evidence of large deposits of manure entering the water supply – was of the manned Cessna variety.

But it was during this Midwestern uproar that U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, a Republican who represents a large swath of South Georgia farmland, dropped the first piece of legislation designed to restrict the use of government-operated drones over American soil.

The measure would bar the government use of flying eyes and ears to gather evidence in criminal investigations, or to search for regulatory violations, without a proper search warrant.

We already have plenty of cameras monitoring our lives, but the government-owned ones are aimed at public spaces. They do not peek over fences into our backyards, Scott argues.

[....]

This is where Scott’s measure may fall short. It is all well and good to be suspicious of government snooping. But how do you secure your own domestic air space against citizen-on-citizen prying – inadvertent or otherwise?

The EPA is one thing. But there may be no greater threat to American privacy than a homeowners association with its own air force.

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URL:

http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2012/06/16/austin-scotts-effort-to-rein-in-domestic-drones/?cxntfid=blogs_political_insider_jim_galloway

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The EPA is one thing. But there may be no greater threat to American privacy than a homeowners association with its own air force.

Excellent point, Mr. Galloway.

His example of EPA Cessna vs. imagined EPA drone was also spot on. I think "drone fear" is irrational and overwrought when it comes to an all-powerful government, as there it's not the tool they use to do something, but what they're trying to do, bad or good or inbetween. I.E., they're going to be spying on manure dumping by farms with or without drones, just as there is/was terrible "collateral damage" from warfare and blowback from warfare with or without drones (usually much more in the case of the latter.) Drones are smaller, not as easy to see as traditional aircraft/bombers and are piloted remotely--to which I say: big whoop dee do difference (not) when the operator is a government with a huge military with planes, ships, choppers, tanks and bombs of all varieties as well as inumerable domestic law enforcement agencies, spy agencies with all kinds of technology, and vast powers to use them all. (Not to mention members who include most forms of humanity along the spectrum from sterling honest and hale fellows and ladies all the way to the most dastardly criminal minds one could imagine.)

On the other hand, drones would make a real big difference for entities that never could afford (or weren't allowed) a military or even a police force before, and even more of a difference for those subject to those entities' "rules."

by artappraiser on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 1:39am

Yes, we probably should fear drone use by homeowners' associations, neighborhood watch captains, Mayor Bloomberg and Jenny McCarthy much more than government entities who have other means of spying on us. For example:

News in the Science of "Looking"

Flash news: The U.S. government’s secret space program has decided to give NASA two new telescopes for orbital use, as big as, and even more powerful than, the Hubble Space Telescope. Designed for surveillance, the telescopes from the National Reconnaissance Office were no longer needed for spy missions and can now be sent with missions aimed outward, instead of inward, to study the heavens. They have 2.4-meter (7.9 feet) mirrors, just like the Hubble. They also have an additional feature that the civilian space telescopes lack: A maneuverable secondary mirror that makes it possible to obtain more focused images. These telescopes will have 100 times the field of view of the Hubble. The problem: NASA needs money to instrument, fly and operate these scopes. Sign the petition to fund the NRO telescopes.

I hope this doesn't increase the risk that Congress will kill the James Webb Space Telescope, though now an extensive re-design of that problem-plagued project can be undertaken without it being a calamity for humanity and science. One question that won't be answered: what does the secret space program now have to replace these now outdated telescopes?

When you are outside, look up... and smile for the cameras.

by EmmaZahn on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 1:58am

Austin Scott’s effort to rein in domestic drones

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