# Domestic Drones and Privacy: A Primer

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URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/crs%3AR43965

## Record

- **Collection:** Congressional research report
- **Document type:** CRS Report
- **Published:** March 30, 2015
- **Citation:** R43965

## Text

Domestic Drones and Privacy: A Primer
-name redactedLegislative Attorney
March 30, 2015

Congressional Research Service
7-....
www.crs.gov
R43965

Domestic Drones and Privacy: A Primer

Summary
It has been three years since Congress enacted the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012
(FMRA), calling for the integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or “drones,” into the
national airspace by September 2015. During that time, the substantive legal privacy framework
relating to UAS on the federal level has remained relatively static: Congress has enacted no law
explicitly regulating the potential privacy impacts of drone flights, the courts have had no
occasion to rule on the constitutionality of drone surveillance, and the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) did not include privacy provisions in its proposed rule on small UAS. This
issue, however, has not left the national radar. Congress has held hearings and introduced
legislation concerning the potential privacy implications of domestic drone use; President Obama
recently issued a directive to all federal agencies to assess the privacy impact of their drone
operations; and almost half the states have enacted some form of drone legislation.
There are two overarching privacy issues implicated by domestic drone use. The first is defining
what “privacy” means in the context of aerial surveillance. Privacy is an ambiguous term that can
mean different things in different contexts. This becomes readily apparent when attempting to
apply traditional privacy concepts such as personal control and secrecy to drone surveillance.
Other, more nuanced privacy theories such as personal autonomy and anonymity must be
explored to get a fuller understanding of the privacy risks posed by drone surveillance. Moreover,
with ever-increasing advances in data storage and manipulation, the subsequent aggregation, use,
and retention of drone-obtained data may warrant an additional privacy impact analysis.
The second predominant issue is which entity should be responsible for regulating drones and
privacy. As the final arbiter of the Constitution, the courts are naturally looked upon to provide at
least the floor of privacy protection from UAS surveillance, but as will be discussed in this report,
under current law, this protection may be minimal. In addition to the courts, the executive branch
likely has a role to play in regulating privacy and drones. While the FAA has taken on a relatively
passive role in such regulation, the President’s new privacy directive for government drone use
and multi-stakeholder process for private use could create an initial framework for privacy
regulations. With its power over interstate commerce, Congress has the broadest authority to set
national standards for UAS privacy regulation. Several measures were introduced in the 113th
Congress that would have restricted both public- and private-actor domestic UAS operations, and
reintroduction of these bills is likely in the 114th Congress. Lastly, some have argued that under
our system of federalism, the states should be left to experiment with various privacy schemes. It
is reported that by the end of 2014, 20 states have enacted some form of drone regulation.
This report will provide a primer on privacy issues related to various UAS operations, both public
and private, including an overview of current UAS uses, the privacy interests implicated by these
operations, and various potential approaches to UAS privacy regulation.

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Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 1
Background ...................................................................................................................................... 2
Authorization and Uses ............................................................................................................. 3
Public Operators .................................................................................................................. 3
Private Operators ................................................................................................................. 5
Privacy Interests Implicated by UAS Operations ............................................................................ 6
Surveillance ............................................................................................................................... 6
Personal Control .................................................................................................................. 6
Secrecy ................................................................................................................................ 7
Autonomy ............................................................................................................................ 7
Anonymity........................................................................................................................... 8
Post-Collection Activities .......................................................................................................... 8
Aggregation ......................................................................................................................... 9
Use..................................................................................................................................... 10
Retention ........................................................................................................................... 10
Various Approaches to UAS Privacy Regulation........................................................................... 11
Courts ...................................................................................................................................... 11
Fourth Amendment............................................................................................................ 11
Privacy Torts...................................................................................................................... 14
Executive Branch..................................................................................................................... 17
FAA—Privacy Rules at the Test Sites and Beyond ........................................................... 17
President’s Memorandum on UAS and Privacy ................................................................ 19
Privacy Impact Assessments and Privacy Working Groups .............................................. 21
DOJ Inspector General UAS Report ................................................................................. 22
Congress .................................................................................................................................. 23
Legislation ......................................................................................................................... 23
Oversight ........................................................................................................................... 25
States........................................................................................................................................ 26

Contacts
Author Contact Information........................................................................................................... 27

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Introduction
It has been three years since Congress enacted the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012
(FMRA), calling for the integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or “drones,” into the
national airspace by September 2015.1 During that time, the substantive legal privacy framework
relating to UAS on the federal level has remained relatively static: Congress has enacted no law
explicitly regulating the potential privacy impacts of drone flights; the courts have had no
occasion to rule on the constitutionality of drone surveillance; and the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) did not include privacy provisions in its proposed rule on small UAS.2
However, this issue has not left the national radar. Congress held several hearings in the 113th
Congress on the potential privacy impacts of domestic drone use on American citizens;3 Members
have introduced legislation to regulate both public- and private-actor use of drones;4 the executive
branch has taken various measures to assess the privacy impact of its drone operations;5 and
almost half the states have enacted UAS legislation.6
As this report will discuss, there are two overarching privacy issues implicated by domestic drone
flights. The first issue is defining and understanding what the chameleon phrase “privacy” means
in the context of aerial surveillance. Traditional privacy concepts such as the right to control
information about oneself or secrecy do not adequately capture potential privacy concerns raised
by visual surveillance; instead, privacy concepts such as personal autonomy and anonymity must
be explored to get a fuller understanding about the scope of privacy interests implicated by UAS
operations. Additionally, a separate set of privacy interests might be implicated by the subsequent
aggregation, use, and retention of drone-obtained information. For instance, the Supreme Court’s
aerial surveillance cases generally hold that it is not a Fourth Amendment search to conduct
surveillance of private property while flying in navigable airspace.7 However, one could argue
that beyond the initial collection of data, a unique privacy interest is at risk by aggregating
multiple flights over one’s home, using drone-obtained data in ways never envisioned by the
initial collection, or retaining that data indefinitely.
The second predominant issue is which entity should be responsible for regulating UAS privacy
issues. The courts can be expected to apply traditional privacy rules encompassed in the Fourth
Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and privacy torts found largely in state
statutory and common law. Since drone use has been relatively limited to date, the courts have yet
to address how these laws apply to UAS flights. Privacy safeguards might also come from
1

FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, P.L. 112-95, §§331-336, 126 Stat. 11, 72-78.
See Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, 80 Fed. Reg. 9544, 9552 (proposed Feb. 23,
2015).
3
See, e.g., The Future of Drones In America: Law Enforcement and Privacy Considerations: Hearing Before the S.
Comm. on the Judiciary, 113th Cong. (2013) (hereinafter Senate Judiciary Hearing); Eyes in the Sky: The Domestic Use
of Unmanned Aerial Systems: Hearing Before the H. Comm. on the Judiciary Subcomm. on Crime, Terrorism,
Homeland Security, and Investigations, 113th Cong. (2013).
4
See Drone Aircraft Privacy and Transparency Act of 2013, S. 1639, 113th Cong. (2013); H.R. 2868, 113th Cong.
(2013); Preserving Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act of 2013, H.R. 972, 113th Cong. (2013), S. 3287, 112th
Cong. (2012); Preserving American Privacy Act of 2013, H.R. 637, 113th Cong. (2013).
5
See “Executive Branch,” infra p. 17.
6
See “States,” infra p. 26.
7
See, e.g., California v. Ciraolo, 476 U.S. 207, 215 (1986).
2

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executive branch policies. On February 15, 2015, President Obama issued a memorandum
charging all federal agencies that use drones in their operations to evaluate the privacy impact of
such use and develop policies to mitigate any privacy concerns.8 The need for this new initiative
may have been prompted, in part, by the FAA’s relatively passive role in setting privacy rules for
drone operations. The FAA’s recently proposed rule for small UAS operations and certifications
did not include any privacy provisions, and it is likely the FAA will remain in an advisory, rather
than regulatory, role with respect to this issue.9 With its power over interstate commerce,10
Congress has the broadest authority to set national standards for UAS privacy regulation. For
instance, Congress could create a broad legislative scheme regulating all UAS uses; it could pass
more narrow proposals such as a warrant requirement for law enforcement use; or it could create
a scheme regulating the subsequent use, retention, and dissemination of drone-obtained data.
Federal legislation introduced in the 113th Congress, and likely to be introduced in the 114th
Congress, utilized, to some extent, these various approaches.11 Lastly, some have argued that
under our system of federalism, the states should be left to experiment with various privacy
schemes.12 Indeed, the states have taken up this call with 20 states reportedly enacting laws
addressing UAS issues by the end of 2014.13
In reviewing these various forms of regulation, it is clear that understanding privacy rights vis-àvis drones is not as simple as applying Supreme Court case law or federal and state statutes.
Rather, regulations may come from myriad sources, some statutory, some regulatory, and some
practical. With this in mind, this report will provide a primer on privacy issues relating to various
UAS operations, both public and private, including an overview of current UAS uses, the privacy
interests implicated by these operations, and various potential approaches to UAS privacy
regulation.14

Background
The FMRA defined an “unmanned aircraft” to mean “an aircraft that is operated without the
possibility of direct human intervention from within or on the aircraft.”15 An “unmanned aircraft
system” (UAS) is the unmanned aircraft and its “associated elements (including communications
8

PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM: PROMOTING ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS WHILE SAFEGUARDING PRIVACY, CIVIL
RIGHTS, AND CIVIL LIBERTIES IN DOMESTIC USE OF UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS (Feb. 15, 2015) [hereinafter
Presidential Memorandum on UAS].
9
Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, 80 Fed. Reg. at 9552.
10
U.S. CONST. art. I, §8, cl. 3.
11
See Drone Aircraft Privacy and Transparency Act of 2013, S. 1639, 113th Cong. (2013); H.R. 2868, 113th Cong.
(2013); Preserving Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act of 2013, H.R. 972, 113th Cong. (2013), S. 3287, 112th
Cong. (2012); Preserving American Privacy Act of 2013, H.R. 637, 113th Cong. (2013).
12
See WELLS C. BENNETT, CIVILIAN DRONES, PRIVACY, AND THE FEDERAL-STATE BALANCE, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
(2014); Margot E. Kaminski, Drone Federalism, Civilian Drones and the Things They Carry, 4 CAL. L. REV. CIRCUIT
57 (2013).
13
National Conference of State Legislatures, 2014 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Legislation, available at
http://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/2014-state-unmanned-aircraft-systems-uas-legislation.aspx
14
For a more in-depth look at privacy and drones, see CRS Report R42701, Drones in Domestic Surveillance
Operations: Fourth Amendment Implications and Legislative Responses, by (name redacted) and CRS Report
R42940, Integration of Drones into Domestic Airspace: Selected Legal Issues, by (name redacted) and (name redac
ted).
15
P.L. 112-95, §331, 126 Stat. 72.

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links and the components that control the unmanned aircraft) that are required for the pilot in
command to operate safely and efficiently in the national airspace system.”16 UAS, commonly
referred to as “drones,” can range from the size of an insect—sometimes called nano or micro
drones—to the size of a traditional jet.17 Drones can be outfitted with an array of sensors,
including high-powered cameras,18 thermal imaging devices,19 license plate readers,20 and laser
radar (LADAR).21 In the near future, drones might be outfitted with facial recognition or soft
biometric recognition, which can recognize and track individuals based on attributes such as
height, age, gender, and skin color.22 In addition to their sophisticated sensors, the technical
capability of drones is rapidly advancing. For instance, the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA), the technology research arm of the U.S. military, is working on a drone that
can enter a building through a window and fly at speeds up to 20 meters/second without
communication to the operator and without GPS waypoints.23 As discussed below, these advanced
sensors and capabilities have the capacity to heighten privacy risks posed by drones.

Authorization and Uses
Currently, all UAS operators who do not fall within the recreational use exemption (discussed
below) must apply directly to the FAA for permission to fly.24 The process for obtaining
permission to operate differs depending on whether the operator is a public operator or a private
commercial operator.

Public Operators
UAS operated by federal, state, or local agencies must obtain a certificate of authorization or
waiver (COA) from the FAA.25 After receiving COA applications, which can be completed
online, the FAA conducts a comprehensive operational and technical review of the UAS and can
16

Id.
See CRS Report R42136, U.S. Unmanned Aerial Systems, by (name redacted), for a description of the various types
of drones operated in the United States.
18
US Army unveils 1.8 gigapixel camera helicopter drone, BBC NEWS (December 29, 2011 6:11 p.m.),
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-16358851.
19
See Draganflyer X6, Thermal Infrared Camera, http://www.draganfly.com/uav-helicopter/draganflyer-x6/features/
flir-camera.php.
20
This sensor can recognize and permit drones to track vehicles based on license plate numbers. Customs and Border
Protection Today, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Support Border Security (July 2004), http://www.cbp.gov/xp/
CustomsToday/2004/Aug/other/aerial_vehicles.xml.
21
This sensor produces three-dimensional images, and has the capability to see through trees and foliage. U.S. ARMY,
UAS CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE, “EYES OF THE ARMY” US ARMY ROADMAP FOR UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS 20102035, at 83 (2010).
22
See Clay Dillow, Army Developing Drones that Can Recognize Your Face from a Distance, POPSCI (September 28,
2011, 5:01 p.m.), available at http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-09/army-wants-drones-can-recognizeyour-face-and-read-your-mind.
The issue of weaponizing drones, which presents unique legal issues, is beyond the scope of this report.
23
Fast Lightweight Autonomy (FLA), Defense Sciences Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (last
visited Feb. 24, 2015), http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/DSO/Programs/
Fast_Lightweight_Autonomy_%28FLA%29.aspx.
24
FAA, “Unmanned Aircraft Operations in the National Airspace System,” 72 Fed. Reg. 6689 (Feb. 13, 2007).
25
Id.
17

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place limits on its operation in order to ensure its safe use in airspace.26 COAs are not generally
publicly available, but have been released in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
requests. The most recent FOIA request on the FAA’s website revealed 426 UAS COA files.27

Customs and Border Protection
The most prominent domestic user of UAS among federal agencies is the Department of
Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).28 As of September
2013, CBP was reported to own 10 UAS, which are operated by CBP’s Office of Air and Marine
(OAM).29 The bulk of CBP’s flight missions involve patrolling the nation’s borders, interdicting
persons and contraband illegally entering the United States. CBP’s COA allows it to operate in an
airspace that covers a 100 mile corridor along the northern border and within 20 to 60 miles along
the southern border, excluding urban areas. In addition to its border missions, CBP has provided
unmanned aerial support to various federal and state agencies, including the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Marshals Service,
the U.S. Coast Guard, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Texas Department of Public
Safety, among others.30 In one prominent case, CBP used one of its Predator drones to assist local
police in North Dakota to monitor an individual suspected of cattle theft and threatening police
officers.31 The number of these “loan” operations has steadily increased each year since 2010. For
instance, CBP flew one flight for the DEA in 2010, 19 flights in 2011, and 66 in 2012.32

Department of Justice
The other primary federal agency currently using UAS in its operations is the Department of
Justice (DOJ), the nation’s chief law enforcement agency. In 2013, DOJ’s Office of the Inspector
General issued a report reviewing the various UAS programs underway within DOJ.33 All of the
UAS purchased by DOJ so far have been what the FAA calls “small UAS,” those 55 pounds or
less. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been the most prominent component of DOJ
to use UAS in the field and has been doing so since 2006.34 The FBI noted in a July 2013 letter to
Senator Rand Paul that it had used UAS in 10 operations, including those related to search and
rescue, drug interdictions, kidnapping, and fugitive investigations.35 The Bureau of Alcohol,
26

See generally FAA “Unmanned Aircraft Systems,” available at http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/uas/cert/.
Freedom of Information Act Responses, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (last visited March 4, 2015),
https://www.faa.gov/uas/public_operations/foia_responses/.
28
Before operating a UAS in the national airspace, CBP, as with any other governmental entity, must obtain a
Certificate of Authorization (COA) from the FAA. See CRS Report R42940, for a discussion of FAA’s UAS licensing
process.
29
DEP’T OF HOMELAND SECURITY, PRIVACY IMPACT ASSESSMENT FOR THE AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS 4 (2013).
30
Customs and Border Protection Drone Flight List – Supplemental, Electronic Frontier Foundation (last visited Feb.
19, 2015), available at https://www.eff.org/document/eff-v-dhs-cbp-supplemental-agency-list.
31
See Jason Koebler, First Man Arrested With Drone Evidence Vows to Fight Case, U.S. NEWS (April 9, 2012),
available at http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/04/09/first-man-arrested-with-drone-evidence-vows-to-fightcase.
32
Customs and Border Protection Drone Flight List, supra note 30.
33
U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Interim Report on the Department of Justice’s Use and
Support of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (2013), available at http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2013/a1337.pdf.
34
Id. at 5.
35
Letter from Stephen D. Kelly, Office of Congressional Affairs, Federal Bureau of Investigation to Senator Rand Paul
(continued...)
27

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Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has plans to use UAS in its future operations but has not
done so yet.36 And while the DEA and the Marshals Service have purchased several UAS, as of
2012 they had no plans to use them in future operations.37 This might be attributed to the DEA
and Marshals Service use of CBP drones in their operations.

Other Federal Uses
In addition to DHS and DOJ, the FAA has issued COAs to various other federal entities—both
military and civilian.38 On the defense side, COAs have been issued to DARPA, the U.S. Army,
the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Air Force, for operations in U.S. airspace. On the civilian
side, COAs have been issued to the Departments of State, Interior, and Energy, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST).

State and Local Governmental Operations
Like their federal counterparts, state and local governmental entities must obtain a COA in order
to conduct drone operations. As of 2012, the FAA has issued several hundred COAs to state and
local governmental entities to operate UAS.39 These have included state and city governments,
such as Houston, Texas, and the Colorado Department of Transportation; local fire and police
departments, including the Miami-Dade Police Department; and state and local universities, like
Indiana University.40

Private Operators
Until the FAA finalizes its small UAS rule as required under FMRA, there are currently only a
limited number of ways to gain authorization for private commercial use of UAS. A private
operator may obtain a special airworthiness certificate in the experimental category issued by the
FAA.41 These certificates have been issued on a limited basis for flight tests, demonstrations, and
training. The second means of authorization is under FMRA’s Section 333, which permits the
FAA to authorize certain UAS flights before the FAA issues a final small UAS rule.42 These
Section 333 exemptions have been issued for such purposes as movie productions, precision
agriculture, flare stack inspection, and bridge inspections.43 Finally, certain recreational UAS
users may fall within FMRA’s model aircraft exception, meaning they are not required to obtain
(...continued)
(July 19, 2013).
36
DOJ Inspector General Report, supra note 33, at 5.
37
Id. at 6.
38
See 2012 FAA Response to Congressman Markey on Drones, Electronic Frontier Foundation (Sept. 21, 2012),
available at https://www.eff.org/document/2012-faa-response-congressman-markey-drones.
39
Id.
40
Id.
41
See 72 Fed. Reg. 6689; 14 C.F.R. §§21.191, 21.193 (experimental certificates generally); 14 C.F.R. §91.319
(operating limitations on experimental certificate aircraft).
42
P.L. 112-95, §333, 126 Stat. 75.
43
Authorizations Granted Via Section 333 Exemptions, Federal Aviation Administration (last visited Feb. 19, 2015),
available at https://www.faa.gov/uas/legislative_programs/section_333/333_authorizations/.

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specific authorization from the FAA before flying UAS. Section 336 of FMRA prohibits the FAA
from promulgating a rule regarding “model” aircraft if the aircraft is flown “strictly for hobby or
recreational use” and meets several other requirements.44

Privacy Interests Implicated by UAS Operations
A threshold issue in analyzing drones and privacy is determining what privacy interests might be
implicated by drone operations, both public and private. Privacy is an ambiguous term that can
mean different things in different contexts, which becomes apparent when attempting to apply
traditional privacy concepts to drone surveillance.

Surveillance
The first privacy interest implicated by the use of UAS is the initial collection of information
about people—what can be called “surveillance”—whether it is conducted by a government or
private actor. With respect to UAS operations, surveillance takes place in nearly all flights, as one
of their major purposes is to collect information, namely visual surveillance, from the sky above.
Surveillance might entail a broad and indiscriminate recording of people on the ground using a
camera sensor on the aircraft. For instance, the U.S. Air Force recently rolled out the newest
iteration of its “Gorgon Stare” sensor, a remotely controlled, aircraft-based Wide-Area Persistent
Surveillance (WAPS) system.45 This sensor allows a single UAS to monitor a 100km2 area in high
resolution for several hours at a time.46 CBP uses a similar sensor while monitoring the U.S.
border.47 Alternatively, surveillance might consist of more targeted data collection, such as the
FBI’s use of a drone in 2013 to monitor a standoff with a child kidnapper.48 Both types of
surveillance, to one degree or another, implicate various privacy concepts, including personal
control, secrecy, autonomy, and anonymity.

Personal Control
One of the leading privacy theories is the right to control information about oneself. According to
one prominent privacy theorist, “[p]rivacy is the claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to
determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is
communicated to others.”49 This paradigm works in some mediums, for example, when we
consent to a smart phone app tracking our location: we can decide whether the trade-off to our
privacy is worth the service we will receive in exchange. However, with drones and aerial
surveillance, this theory of privacy breaks down. For instance, should we be able to control
44

P.L. 112-95, §336, 126 Stat. 77.
See Sierra Nevada Corporation Achieves Milestone for USAF’s Advanced Wide-Area Airborne Persistent
Surveillance (WAPS) System – Gorgon Stare Increment 2 (July 14, 2014), available at http://www.sncorp.com/
AboutUs/NewsDetails/618.
46
See Sierra Nevada fields Argus-IS upgrade to Gorgon Stare pod, Flight Global (July 2, 2014), available at
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/sierra-nevada-fields-argus-is-upgrade-to-gorgon-stare-400978/.
47
Privacy Impact Assessment, supra note 29, at 8.
48
See Victor Blackwell & Michael Pearson, FBI: Bombs Found in Alabama Kidnapper’s Bunker, CNN (Feb. 5, 2013),
available at http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/05/us/alabama-child-hostage/.
49
ALAN WESTIN, PRIVACY AND FREEDOM 7 (1967).
45

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whether people can view us or our activities in public? How are we expected to exercise such
control? And should it make a difference if a person sees us from a traditional aircraft versus a
drone? Requiring consent before conducting aerial surveillance could undermine many uses of
this new technology, making this theory of privacy as applied to drone surveillance unworkable.

Secrecy
Another prominent theory of privacy is the secrecy model. Under this model, an individual’s
privacy is invaded if previously concealed information about them is publicly disclosed; or, put
another way, an individual is not entitled to privacy where that information has been revealed to
another person.50 The Supreme Court relied on this secrecy model in the three aerial surveillance
cases from the 1980s, which held that surveillance conducted in public airspace does not even
trigger—let alone violate—the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches.51
Citing to an earlier case, the Court observed in California v. Ciraolo that “[w]hat a person
knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth
Amendment protection.”52 In addition to Fourth Amendment case law, the privacy tort intrusion
upon seclusion applies this same secrecy model such that most activities revealed to the public
would not constitute a violation of this tort.53 If secrecy remains the primary model for the Fourth
Amendment and privacy torts, individuals would have little protection from drone surveillance
when their location and activities have been revealed to the public.

Autonomy
Another important theory of privacy is personal autonomy. Autonomy generally refers to the
ability of an individual to make life decisions free from interference or control by both
government and private actors.54 Some have argued that surveillance represents a form of social
control, mandating conformity in society, hindering independent thinking, and recording and
notating people who stray from acceptable norms.55 One such example is Jeremy Bentham’s
Panopiticon, a prison facility designed to give inmates the perception of being watched at all
times causing them to self-regulate their behavior to the desired norm.56 Of course, some form of
social control—say, crime control—is beneficial and expected in every society. As noted by
Professor Daniel Solove, “many people desire the discipline and control surveillance can bring.”57
50

See Daniel J. Solove, A Taxonomy of Privacy, 154 U. PA. L. REV. 477, 494 (2006).
See Florida v. Riley, 488 U.S. 445, 450-51 (1989); Dow Chemical Co. v. United States, 476 U.S. 227, 239 (1986);
California v. Ciraolo, 476 U.S. 207, 215 (1986).
52
Ciraolo, 476 U.S. at 213 (1986) (quoting Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967)).
53
See “Privacy Torts,” infra p. 14.
54
See Whalen v. Roe, 429 U.S. 589, 599 (1977).
55
See JOHN GILLIOM, OVERSEERS OF THE POOR: SURVEILLANCE, RESISTANCE, AND THE LIMITS OF PRIVACY 3 (2001)
(“Surveillance of human behavior is in place to control human behavior, whether by limiting access to programs or
institutions, monitoring and affecting behavior within those arenas, or otherwise enforcing rules and norms by
observing and recording acts of compliance and deviance.”); Julie E. Cohen, Examined Lives: Informational Privacy
and the Subject as Object, 52 STAN. L. REV. 1373, 1426 (2000) (“The point is not that people will not learn under
conditions of no-privacy, but that they will learn differently, and that the experience of being watched will constrain, ex
ante, the acceptable spectrum of belief and behavior. Pervasive monitoring of every first move or false start will, at the
margin, incline choices toward the bland and the mainstream. The result will be a subtle yet fundamental shift in the
content of our character, a blunting and blurring of rough edges and sharp lines.”).
56
4 JEREMY BENTHAM, THE WORKS OF JEREMY BENTHAM 40 (1843).
51

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He notes that “[t]oo much social control, however, can adversely impact freedom, creativity, and
self-development.”58 It would appear that potential risks to personal autonomy will depend, at
least in part, on the pervasiveness of drone surveillance. Single, targeted operations would not
appear to implicate this fear of societal control and harm to personal autonomy. However, some
have questioned what effect 24-hour, omnipresent surveillance would have on our public spaces.59
At this point, the shorter flight capabilities of small UAS—the aircraft likely to be most prevalent
in the early stages of UAS integration—would limit the ability to conduct such pervasive
surveillance. Yet, as this technology becomes more sophisticated and maximum possible flight
times are extended, this risk to autonomy may heighten.

Anonymity
Anonymity is a “state of privacy” that “occurs when the individual is in public places or
performing public acts but still seeks, and finds, freedom from identification and surveillance.”60
Professor Christopher Slobogin notes that “the right to public anonymity provides assurance that,
when in public, one will remain nameless—unremarked, part of the undifferentiated crowd—as
far as the government is concerned. The right is surrendered only when one does or says
something that merits government attention, which most of the time must be something
suggestive of criminal activity.”61 Others might argue that when we leave our doorstep, and enter
into society, we give up this right to anonymity by permitting anyone to view our public
movements and whereabouts. Potential blanket UAS surveillance over an urban landscape or a
large public event (for instance, the Super Bowl or NASCAR racing), appears to pose a low risk
to anonymity. Each person can remain a faceless person in the crowd, free from government
identification. Take, for instance, CBP’s surveillance at the border: its Predator-B drones
reportedly fly at a minimum of 19,000 feet and are not able to identify specific persons on the
ground.62 However, the potential use of sensors such as Automated License Plate Readers
(ALPRs)63 or facial recognition technology,64 or UAS surveillance specifically targeted at an
individual, may have the capacity to eliminate one’s anonymity when in public.

Post-Collection Activities
The second class of privacy risks posed by drone surveillance are those activities that occur after
surveillance has been conducted—the aggregation, use, and retention of that data. In certain

(...continued)
57
Solove, supra note 50, at 494.
58
Id.
59
See JAY STANLEY AND CATHERINE CRUMP, PROTECTING PRIVACY FROM AERIAL SURVEILLANCE: RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR GOVERNMENT USE OF DRONE AIRCRAFT, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION 11 (2011).
60
Westin, supra note 49, at 7.
61
Christopher Slobogin, Public Privacy: Camera Surveillance of Public Places and the Right to Anonymity, 72 MISS.
L.J. 213, 238 (2002).
62
Privacy Impact Assessment, supra note 29, at 7.
63
Customs and Border Protection Today, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Support Border Security (July
2004), http://www.cbp.gov/xp/CustomsToday/2004/Aug/other/aerial_vehicles.xml.
64
See Andrew Conte, Drones with Facial Recognition Technology Will End Anonymity, Everywhere, Business Insider
(May 27, 2013), available at http://www.businessinsider.com/facial-recognition-technology-and-drones-2013-5.

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instances, the initial collection may not directly implicate an individual’s privacy interests, but the
subsequent manipulation and storage of that data may warrant an alternative privacy analysis.

Aggregation
“Aggregation” is simply the gathering of information about a person whether from one or
multiple sources.65 In the pre-digital era, aggregating information about a person took concerted
effort and lots of resources. With computer automation, information can be gathered and
aggregated from many sources at the mere push of a button. The privacy theory of aggregation
supposes that while the collection of bits of data about a person may not violate his or her privacy
interests, extensive collection of information about him or her can rise to the level of a legal
privacy intrusion. Professor Solove argues that this unique privacy intrusion arises because “when
analyzed, aggregated information can reveal new facts about a person that she did not expect
would be known about her when the original, isolated data was collected.”66 This theory was on
display in the 2012 GPS tracking case United States v. Jones, where five Justices of the Supreme
Court (in two separate concurrences) acknowledged that short-term location monitoring was
likely not a Fourth Amendment search, but that 28 days of tracking should be considered a
search.67 Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia also applied
this aggregation theory when invalidating the National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) metadata
program, observing,
the ubiquity of phones has dramatically altered the quantity of information that is now
available and, more importantly, what that information can tell the Government about
people’s lives. ... Records that once would have revealed a few scattered tiles of information
about a person now reveal an entire mosaic—a vibrant and constantly updating picture of the
person’s life.68

In the context of UAS operations, aggregation may mean the surveillance of an individual for an
extended time, or the combination of drone-obtained data with other independent information. A
simple one time fly-over of a residence may not significantly implicate any of the privacy
interests described above (e.g., secrecy, autonomy, anonymity), but continuous surveillance of a
person may implicate this aggregation interest. Alternatively, aggregating drone-collected data
with other seemingly personal information, such as telephone,69 banking,70 utility,71 and other
records—all of which can be obtained without a probable cause warrant—might entail a unique
privacy infringement beyond the mere collection of those individual data sets.

65

See Solove, supra note 50, at 507.
Id.
67
United States v. Jones, 132 S. Ct. 945, 954 (2012) (Sotomayor, J., concurring), id. at 957 (Alito, J., concurring in the
judgment).
68
Klayman v. Obama, 957 F. Supp. 2d 1, 35-36 (D.D.C. 2013). This case is currently before the D.C. Circuit Court of
Appeals.
69
See Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979).
70
See United States v. Miller, 425 U.S. 435 (1976).
71
See United States v. McIntyre, 646 F.3d 1107 (8th Cir. 2011); United States v. Starkweather, No. 91-30354, 1992 WL
204005, at *2 (9th Cir. August 24, 1992).
66

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Use
The second post-collection privacy risk is the improper use of data—that is, data collected for an
authorized purpose, but subsequently used in an unauthorized way. One commentator has argued
that in the era of big data, where we inevitably share troves of personal information with the
government and commercial entities, privacy rules that focus on the collection and retention of
data are “becoming impractical for individuals, while also potentially cutting off future uses of
data that could benefit society.”72 He argues that privacy laws should instead focus on controlling
the use of that data.73 Various federal laws embody this principle. For instance, the Privacy Act of
1974 requires any federal agency that maintains a database of personal records to inform each
individual about whom it collects information of “the principal purpose or purposes for which the
information is intended to be used.”74 Similarly, the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994 made
it a federal crime “for any person knowingly to obtain or disclose personal information, from a
motor vehicle record, for any use not permitted” under that statute.75 Instead of placing front-end
restrictions on drone surveillance, such as requiring warrants before they are operated,
policymakers might want to instead regulate how that information is used. For instance, a
proposal may permit law enforcement officials to collect information for one purpose—say,
traffic control—but prohibit it from using that information for other purposes, such as against an
individual in a criminal prosecution absent a court order.

Retention
Another incident of the digital revolution is the near limitless ability of the government and
private companies to store and retain information about individuals. The cost of storage has
decreased exponentially over the past several decades and is no longer a hindrance to maintaining
vast databases of personal data.76 The Obama Administration’s report on big data highlighted this
concern when it noted that “the declining cost of collection, storage, and processing of data,
combined with new sources of data like sensors, cameras, geospatial and other observational
technologies, means that we live in a world of near-ubiquitous data collection.”77 This issue of
data retention has been one of the drivers behind Europe’s “right to be forgotten” law, which
includes a provision requiring that data be retained “for no longer than is necessary for the
purposes for which it was collected.”78 Generally speaking, when it comes to Fourth Amendment
law, once information is lawfully collected, there are no additional constitutional hindrances to it
being stored indefinitely. However, in the NSA metadata litigation, Judge Leon acknowledged
that unique privacy interests were affected by the long-term storage of everyone’s telephone call
records.79 He observed that in decades past, it was not expected that the government would retain
72

See Craig Mundie, Privacy Pragmatism, FOREIGN AFFAIRS (April 2014), available at http://www.foreignaffairs.com/
articles/140741/craig-mundie/privacy-pragmatism.
73
Id.
74
5 U.S.C. §552a(e)(3)(B).
75
18 U.S.C. §2722(a).
76
See generally Orin S. Kerr, The Next Generation Communications Privacy Act, 162 U. PA. L. REV. 373, 391 (2014).
77
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, BIG DATA: SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES, PRESERVING VALUES (2014), available at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/big_data_privacy_report_5.1.14_final_print.pdf.
78
See Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 24 October 1995 on the Protection of
Individuals with Regard to Processing of Personal Data and on the Free Movement of Such Data, 1995 O.J. (L 281)
Art. 6.
79
Klayman, 976 F. Supp. 2d at 32.

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a suspect’s phone records once a case was concluded, whereas “[t]he NSA telephony metadata
program ... involves the creation and maintenance of a historical database containing five years’
worth of data.”80 The privacy impact of retention of UAS-derived data would largely depend on
whether people could be identified in the recording. Retention of data that contains personally
identifiable information and can be located based on this information would seem to implicate
this retention interest.

Various Approaches to UAS Privacy Regulation
In addition to the general privacy concepts implicated by drone surveillance, one might question
which government entity, if any, should regulate the potential privacy issues posed by the
integration of thousands of UAS into domestic skies. Congress neither mentioned the word
“privacy” in FMRA nor has it enacted any substantive privacy rules relating to drones
subsequently. The FAA recently issued its proposed rule for operating small drones (55 pounds or
less), but failed to include any privacy safeguards. Potentially in response to this dearth of privacy
regulations, President Obama recently mandated that all federal agencies evaluate the privacy
risks posed by their drone operations. This section will explore different approaches to UAS
privacy regulation, focusing on the various government institutions—the courts, the executive
branch, Congress, and state governments—that might conduct such regulation.

Courts
As the final arbiter of the Constitution,81 the courts are frequently relied on to safeguard the
privacy rights of Americans, whether through the suppression mechanism in criminal
prosecutions,82 or civil suits against government officials for violations of constitutional rights.83
The Fourth Amendment, as applied by the courts, will provide a floor of legal protections against
government actor use of drones. Likewise, privacy torts, which are given much of their content by
the courts, will provide some legal recourse to potential privacy invasions caused by drones
operated by private actors.

Fourth Amendment
The Fourth Amendment provides in relevant part: “The right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated.”84 This Amendment, like most constitutional protections, applies only to acts by public
actors,85 and, as such, will provide the minimum legal requirements for government use of
80

Id. (emphasis in original).
See Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 177 (1803) (“It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department
to say what the law is.”); Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1, 18 (1958) (“Marbury declared the basic principle that the
federal judiciary is supreme in the exposition of the law of the Constitution, and that principle has ever since
been respected by this Court and the Country as a permanent and indispensable feature of our constitutional system.”).
82
See Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961).
83
See 42 U.S.C. §1983.
84
U.S. CONST. amend. IV.
85
Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U.S. 465, 475 (1921) (“The Fourth Amendment gives protection against unlawful
searches and seizures, and as shown in the previous cases, its protection applies to governmental action. Its origin and
(continued...)
81

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drones.86 In order for the Fourth Amendment to apply in a particular situation, a reviewing court
must assess whether the government conducted a “search” by asking whether it invaded an
individual’s “reasonable expectation of privacy.”87 Although no court has had the opportunity to
apply the Fourth Amendment to drone technology, similar cases regarding traditional aircraft and
location monitoring provide insight.
In three cases from the 1980s, the Supreme Court upheld the government’s warrantless use of
traditional aircraft to surveil both private and commercial property.88 In Florida v. Riley, the case
most closely resembling potential UAS surveillance, the police flew a helicopter 400 feet above a
private residence to determine if marijuana was growing in a greenhouse in the backyard.89 The
Court held that this fly-over was not a Fourth Amendment search, as anyone from the public
could have seen the property from that vantage point since the aircraft was in federal airspace.90
Similarly, in the 1983 case United States v. Knotts, the Court held that it was not a Fourth
Amendment search to track a person’s public movements using an electronic tracking device.91
There is a general consensus among commentators that a strict application of these cases would
accord limited privacy safeguards to individuals located on both public and private property from
UAS surveillance being conducted from lawful federal airspace.92
(...continued)
history clearly show that it was intended as a restraint upon the activities of sovereign authority, and was not intended
to be a limitation upon other than governmental agencies”).
86
For a more detailed look at how the Fourth Amendment might apply to UAS, see CRS Report R42701, Drones in
Domestic Surveillance Operations: Fourth Amendment Implications and Legislative Responses, by (name redac
ted).
87
See Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 362 (Harlan, J., concurring).
88
See Florida v. Riley, 488 U.S. 445, 450-51 (1989) (“Riley could not reasonably have expected that his greenhouse
was protected from public or official observation from a helicopter had it been flying within the navigable airspace for
fixed-wing aircraft.”); Dow Chemical Co. v. United States, 476 U.S. 227, 239 (1986) (“We hold that the taking of
aerial photographs of an industrial plant complex from navigable airspace is not a search prohibited by the Fourth
Amendment.”); California v. Ciraolo, 476 U.S. 207, 215 (1986) (“In an age where private and commercial flight in the
public airways is routine, it is unreasonable for respondent to expect that his marijuana plants were constitutionally
protected from being observed with the naked eye from an altitude of 1,000 feet. The Fourth Amendment simply does
not require the police traveling in the public airways at this altitude to obtain a warrant in order to observe what is
visible to the naked eye.”).
89
Riley, 488 U.S.at 448.
90
Ciraolo, 476 U.S. at 213 (“The Fourth Amendment protection of the home has never been extended to require law
enforcement officers to shield their eyes when passing by a home on public thoroughfares. Nor does the mere fact that
an individual has taken measures to restrict some views of his activities preclude an officer’s observation from a public
vantage point where he has a right to be and which renders the activities clearly visible.”).
91
United States v. Knotts, 460 U.S. 276, 285 (1983).
92
See Senate Judiciary Hearing, supra note 3, at 94 (2013) (written statement Ryan Calo, Law Professor, University of
Washington School of Law) (“The Supreme Court has made it clear through a series of decisions in the nineteeneighties that there is no search for Fourth Amendment purposes if an airplane or helicopter permits officers to peer into
your backyard. I see no reason why these precedents would not readily extend to drones.”); Joseph J. Vacek, Big
Brother Will Soon Be Watching—Or Will He? Constitutional, Regulatory, and Operational Issues Surrounding the Use
of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Law Enforcement, 85 N.D. L. REV. 673 (2009) (“Constitutionally, it seems
that aerial surveillance by any method of any area in open view from any legal altitude does not implicate the Fourth
Amendment, as long as the technology used to obtain the surveillance technology is in general public use and does not
penetrate into the home”); Brandon Nagy, Why They Can Watch You: Assessing Constitutionality of Warrantless
Unmanned Aerial Surveillance by Law Enforcement, 29 BERKELEY TECH. L. J. 135 (2014) (“Those concerned that
increasing law enforcement UAS operations erode personal privacy at the expense of the Fourth Amendment do,
indeed, have much to worry about. Current Supreme Court jurisprudence, although not directly addressing the Fourth
Amendment implications of UAS surveillance, suggests that law enforcement UAS use, with certain limits, would be
(continued...)

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However, several more recent cases demonstrate that the Court has been uneasy about applying
decade-old cases to new technology. In Kyllo v. United States, for instance, the use of senseenhancing technology “not in general public use” to obtain information about the inside of a
home was considered a Fourth Amendment search.93 Similarly, in United States v. Jones, five
Justices (in two separate concurrences) would have held that a month-long location monitoring
using a GPS device constituted a search, even in the face of Knotts, which upheld the use of a
more rudimentary tracking device.94 The concurring Justices in Jones expressed concern about
the sheer ability of these new technologies to collect vast amounts of information about
individuals,95 and their capacity to break down any natural barriers (such as time and resources)
to excessive police surveillance.96 This conundrum of applying old precedent to newer forms of
technology is not unique for the federal courts. Several cases currently pending in the federal
courts are wrestling with how to apply Smith v. Maryland, a case from the 1970s that addressed
the collection of telephone numbers of one individual over several days,97 to the NSA’s collection
of millions of telephone records over a five-year period.98 With this trend in mind, federal judges
may be persuaded that the sophistication and type of sensors used by UAS present a strong
enough privacy risk to modify old precedents such as Riley or Ciraolo and adapt them to the new
potential reality of UAS aerial surveillance. Additionally, depending on the duration of the
surveillance and the amount of data collected on an individual, the courts may be inclined to
apply an aggregation-type theory to long-term UAS surveillance.
This issue of the law keeping up with technology is a constantly recurring theme in Fourth
Amendment jurisprudence. Some have argued that the judiciary is not the ideal forum for creating
adequate privacy rules when fast-moving technology is involved.99 Courts tend to be backward
looking—resolving past factual scenarios between two discrete parties. This characteristic makes
courts reactive rather than proactive, leading to privacy rules that might fall behind the particular
technology in question. For instance, the Supreme Court has yet to resolve whether individuals
are entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy in their emails, a technology that has been
around for decades.100 Part of the problem is that the Court has been unsure of its role in
(...continued)
found constitutional if challenged under the Fourth Amendment.”).
93
Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27, 34 (2001).
94
United States v. Jones, 132 S. Ct. 945, 954 (2012) (Sotomayor, J., concurring), id. at 957 (Alito, J., concurring in the
judgment).
95
Id. at 956 (Sotomayor, J., concurring) (“I would take these attributes of GPS monitoring into account when
considering the existence of a reasonable societal expectation of privacy in the sum of one’s public movements. I
would ask whether people reasonably expect that their movements will be recorded and aggregated in a manner that
enables the Government to ascertain, more or less at will, their political and religious beliefs, sexual habits, and so
on.”).
96
Id. at 963-64 (Alito, J., concurring) (“In the pre-computer age, the greatest protections of privacy were neither
constitutional nor statutory, but practical. Traditional surveillance for any extended period of time was difficult and
costly and therefore rarely undertaken. The surveillance at issue in this case—constant monitoring of the location of a
vehicle for four weeks—would have required a large team of agents, multiple vehicles, and perhaps aerial assistance.
Only an investigation of unusual importance could have justified such an expenditure of law enforcement resources.
Devices like the one used in the present case, however, make long-term monitoring relatively easy and cheap.”).
97
See Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979).
98
Compare Klayman v. Obama, 957 F. Supp. 2d 1, 35-36 (D.D.C. 2013), with ACLU v. Clapper, 959 F. Supp. 2d 724
(S.D.N.Y. 2013).
99
See Orin S. Kerr, The Fourth Amendment and New Technologies: Constitutional Myths and the Case for Caution,
102 MICH. L. REV. 801, 858 (2004).
100
See City of Ontario v. Quon, 560 U.S. 746, 760 (2010) (assuming but not holding that individuals have a reasonable
(continued...)

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developing privacy rules when technology is in flux,101 with some Justices preferring that
legislatures, rather than the courts, take the lead role.102 This is not to say that this approach is
ineffective: this case-by-case approach allows the courts to formulate rules more cautiously based
on concrete facts in an adversarial setting, and reduces the risk of creating rules with potentially
unintended consequences.
This hesitancy to confront new technologies head-on might explain the Court’s recent reliance on
property rights as the basis for Fourth Amendment decisions, which, incidentally, might boost
Fourth Amendment safeguards against UAS surveillance. In Jones, the five-Justice majority led
by Justice Scalia rejuvenated a centuries old property-based theory of the Fourth Amendment by
holding that the physical attachment of a GPS device on the undercarriage of a vehicle
constituted an invasion of the owner’s “effect” and therefore a Fourth Amendment search.103
Justice Scalia observed that the Katz reasonable expectation of privacy formula added to, but did
not replace, the traditional property-based test. Likewise, in Florida v. Jardines, the Court relied
on this property theory in holding that the government’s use of a trained police drug dog to
investigate an individual’s home and its immediate surroundings was a “search.”104 Depending on
the flight path of the aircraft, and the height at which it is operating, this property theory might be
employed to hold that flying a UAS onto someone’s property with the intent to obtain information
is a Fourth Amendment search for which a warrant would be required.

Privacy Torts
Like the Fourth Amendment, a body of laws collectively known as “privacy torts” might create
safeguards against privacy invasions by both public- and private-actor use of unmanned aircraft.
While some have held up privacy torts as proof that the existing body of case law is sufficient to
regulate privacy issues arising from UAS operations,105 others have asserted that such laws would
provide minimal protection from drone surveillance, at least while in public.106

(...continued)
expectation privacy in electronic communications).
101
Id. at 759 (“The Court must proceed with care when considering the whole concept of privacy expectations in
communications made on electronic equipment owned by a government employer. The judiciary risks error by
elaborating too fully on the Fourth Amendment implications of emerging technology before its role in society has
become clear.”).
102
Jones, 132 S. Ct. at 945 (Alito, J., concurring in the judgment) (“In circumstances involving dramatic technological
change, the best solution to privacy concerns may be legislative. A legislative body is well situated to gauge changing
public attitudes, to draw detailed lines, and to balance privacy and public safety in a comprehensive way.”) (internal
citation omitted).
103
Jones, 132 S.Ct. at 949.
104
Florida v. Jardines, 133 S. Ct. 1409, 1417-18 (2013).
105
See John Villasenor, Observations from Above: Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Privacy, 36 HARV. J. L. & PUB.
POL’Y 457, 501 (2013) (“Although privacy expectations are greatly reduced outside the home, the non-governmental
use of a UAS to capture images and other information taken while the individual is in a public setting could nonetheless
constitute an invasion of privacy.”).
106
See Senate Hearing, supra note 3, at 71 (statement of Ryan Calo, Professor, University of Washington School of
Law) (“[T]here are even fewer limitations on the use of drones by individuals, corporations, or the press. The common
law privacy torts such as intrusion upon seclusion tend to track the constitutional doctrine that there should be no
expectation of privacy in public.”).

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The genesis of the modern privacy tort sprung from the pens of Justice Louis Brandeis and
Samuel Warren in their law review article “Right to Privacy.”107 There, they espoused the view
that privacy could form the underpinning of civil liability absent other physical or tortious
conduct. This new tort was later broken down into four discrete torts and included in a set of
model rules intended for adoption by the states: (1) intrusion upon seclusion; (2) appropriation of
one’s name or likeness; (3) publicity given to private life; (4) publicity placing person in false
light.108 Of these four, the first and third will likely prove the most applicable to UAS
surveillance.
The tort of intrusion upon seclusion, which may vary in its details from state to state, generally
provides, “One who intentionally intrudes, physically or otherwise, upon the solitude or seclusion
of another or his private affairs or concerns, is subject to liability to the other for invasion of his
privacy, if the intrusion would be highly offensive to a reasonable person.”109 This tort applies a
“reasonable person standard”—that is, it tests whether a person of “ordinary sensibilities” would
be offended by the alleged invasion.110 Likewise, the intrusion must not only be offensive, but
“highly offensive,”111 or as one court put it, “outrageously unreasonable conduct.”112 Generally, a
single incident will not suffice; instead, the intrusion must be “repeated with such persistence and
frequency as to amount to a course of hounding” and “becomes a burden to his existence.... ”113
However, in a few cases a single intrusion was adequate.114 The invasion of privacy must be
intentional, meaning the defendant must desire that the intrusion would occur, or, as with other
torts,115 know with a substantial certainty that such an invasion would result from his actions.116
An accidental intrusion is not actionable. Finally, in some states, the intrusion must cause mental
suffering, shame, or humiliation to permit recovery.117
The tort “publicity given to private facts” provides, “One who gives publicity to a matter
concerning the private life of another is subject to liability to the other for invasion of his privacy,
if the matter publicized is of a kind that (a) would be highly offensive to a reasonable person, and
(b) is not of legitimate concern to the public.”118 Like the intrusion upon seclusion tort, publicity
given to private facts focuses on publicity given to an individual’s private, as opposed to public,
life.119 As the comments to the model rules observe, a person cannot complain of someone taking
his photograph while walking down the street, but when a photograph is taken without his
consent in a private place, and then subsequently published, he will have a valid publicity
107

See Louis D. Brandeis & Samuel D. Warren, The Right to Privacy, 4 HARV. L. REV. 193, 205 (1890).
RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OR TORTS §§652B-652E.
109
Id. §652B.
110
See Shorter v. Retail Credit Co., 251 F. Supp. 329, 322 (D.S.C. 1966).
111
RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS §652B (emphasis added).
112
N.O.C., Inc. v. Schaefer, 484 A.2d 729, 733 (N.J. Super. Ct. Law Div. 1984).
113
RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS §652B cmt. d.
114
See, e.g., Miller v. National Broadcasting Co., 187 Cal. App. 3d 1463 (Cal. Ct. App. 1986) (videotaping man in his
home while being resuscitated after having suffered a heart seizure); Nader v. General Motors Corp., 25 N.Y.2d 560,
570 (1970) (surveilling plaintiff in bank in an “overzealous” manner).
115
RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS §652B.
116
See 2 DAN B DOBBS ET AL., THE LAW OF TORTS §29 (2d ed. 2011).
117
See, e.g., DeAngelo v. Fortney, 515 A.2d 594, 596 (Pa. Sup. 1986); Burns v. Masterbrand Cabinets, Inc., 369 Ill.
App. 3d 1006, 1012 (Ill. App. Ct. 2007).
118
RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS §652D.
119
See id. at cmt. b.
108

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claim.120 Unlike the intrusion tort, publicity given to private life requires that the information be
made available to the public at large, and furthermore, generally prohibits claims that involve
matters that are of legitimate public concern.121
Under current law, the location of the target of the surveillance largely controls whether someone
has a viable claim for both intrusion upon seclusion and publicity given to private life, and this is
likely to hold true with drone surveillance. For the most part, using a drone to peer inside the
home of another⎯whether looking through a window or utilizing extra-sensory technology such
as thermal imaging⎯would likely satisfy the intrusion tort, and if photographs were taken and
subsequently published, that person would also likely have a claim for publicity given to private
life. 122
The likelihood of a successful claim is significantly diminished, however, if the surveillance is
targeted at individuals in a public space,123 or even while on private property so long as they
could be viewed from a public vantage point.124 Take, for instance, the suit brought by Aaron and
120

Id.
Id. at cmt. a, d.
122
See, e.g., Wolfson v. Lewis, 924 F. Supp. 1413 (E.D. Pa. 1996) (recording plaintiff’s home with sophisticated sound
and video equipment); Souder v. Pendleton Detectives, 88 So.2d 716, 718 (La. Ct. App. 1956) (peeping into plaintiff’s
windows); Egan v. Schmock, 93 F. Supp. 2d 1090, 1094-95 (N.D. Cal. 2000) (filming plaintiff and family while in
their home); see also RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS §652B cmt. b, illus. 2.
123
See Schifano v. Green County, 624 So. 2d 178 (Ala. 1993) (dismissing claim against race track operators who took
picture of plaintiffs in winner’s circle); Fogel v. Forbes, 500 F. Supp. 1081, 1084, 1087 (E.D. Pa. 1980) (dismissing
claim for photographs taken at airport); Tellado v. Time-Life, 643 F. Supp. 904, 907 (D.N.J. 1986) (dismissing claim
for photographs taken on battlefield in Vietnam); International Union v. Garner, 601 F. Supp. 187, 191-92 (M.D. Tenn.
1985) (dismissing claim for photographing license plates); Tedeschi v. Reardon, 5 F. Supp. 2d 40, 46 (D. Mass. 1998)
(same); Jackson v. Playboy Enterprises, Inc., 574 F. Supp. 10, 13 (S.D. Ohio 1983) (dismissing claim for
photographing person on sidewalk); see also RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS §652B cmt. c (commenting that there
is generally no liability for photographing or observing a person while in public “since he is not then in seclusion, and
his appearance is public and open to the public eye.”); William M. Prosser, Privacy, 48 CAL. L. REV. 383, 392 (1960)
(“On the public street, or in any other public place, the plaintiff has no right to be alone, and it is no invasion of his
privacy to do no more than follow him about. Neither is it such an invasion to take a photograph in such a place, since
this amounts to nothing more than making a record, not differing essentially from a full written description, of a public
sight which anyone present would be free to see.”).
There have been some successful claims for intrusion upon seclusion involving surveillance conducted in public, see
Kramer v. Downey, 684 S.W. 2d 524, 525 (Tex. Ct. App. 1984) (“[W]e now hold that the right to privacy is broad
enough to include the right to be free of those willful intrusions into one’s personal life at home and at work which
occurred in this case.”); Daily Times Democrat v. Graham, 276 Ala. 380, 381 (1964); Huskey v. National Broadcasting
Co., Inc., 632 F. Supp. 1282, 1285 (N.D. Ill. 1986); see also RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS §652B cmt. c (“Even in
a public place, however, there may be some matters about the plaintiff, such as his underwear or lack of it, that are not
exhibited to the public gaze, and there may still be invasion of privacy when there is intrusion upon these matters.”),
although this is limited to highly embarrassing situations and appears to be the exception rather than the norm. See
Jennifer R. Scharf, Shooting for the Stars: A Call for Federal Legislation to Protect Celebrities’ Privacy Rights, 3
BUFF. INTELL. PROP. L.J. 164, 183 (2006) (“Modifying intrusion to apply in public places would be necessary in order
to provide any relief.”).
124
See McClain v. Boise Cascade Corp., 271 Or. 549, 556 (1975) (dismissing claim where insurance investigator’s
entered property to take photographs of plaintiff); Mojica Escobar v. Roca, 926 F. Supp. 30, 32-33 (D.P.R. 1996)
(dismissing claim against newspaper for photographing outside of home); GTE Mobilnet of South Texas, LTD.
Partnership v. Pascouet, 61 S.W. 3d 599, 605 (Tex. Ct. App. 2001) (dismissing claim against company for cell tower
workers looking onto property when they serviced nearby cell tower); Aisenson v. American Broadcasting Co, 220 Cal.
App. 3d 146, 162-63 (1990) (holding that broadcast of plaintiff while in his driveway and car was not an intrusion upon
seclusion); Wehling v. Columbia Broadcasting System, 721 F.2d 506, 509 (5th Cir. 1983) (holding that broadcast of the
outside of plaintiff’s home taken from public street was not an invasion of privacy); Munson v. Milwaukee Bd. of
School Directors, 969 F.2d 266, 271 (7th Cir. 1992) (same).
121

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Christine Boring against Google for photographs taken of their home and subsequently published
online as part of Google’s Street View program.125 To create this program, Google employees
attach panoramic cameras to their vehicles and drive around taking photographs of areas along
the streets. The Borings, who live on a posted private road, discovered that Google had taken
photographs of their private residence and swimming pool from their driveway. The Borings
sued, among other claims, for intrusion upon seclusion and publicity given to private facts. Both
claims were dismissed by the district court. On appeal, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals
affirmed the dismissal on both counts, holding that the photographs failed to meet the “highly
offensive” standard required under both privacy torts. The court found that “no person of ordinary
sensibilities would be shamed, humiliated, or have suffered mentally as a result of a vehicle
entering in his or her ungated driveway and photographing him or her from there.”126 The view of
the Borings’ house, pool, and driveway could “be seen by any person who entered onto their
driveway, including a visitor or a delivery man.”127 Recording someone with a drone in a public
place or even on private property that can be viewed from a public vantage point, as in the
Google Street View case, would likely not constitute an invasion under either of these privacy
torts.

Executive Branch
In addition to the courts, the executive branch is likely to play a significant role in regulating the
privacy implications of UAS operations. Although the FAA has attempted to focus on safety and
other regulatory issues, privacy remains a perennial topic for the FAA as it leads the federal
government’s UAS integration efforts. Some have posited that instead of the FAA, other
executive branch agencies, such as DHS and DOJ, should take the lead role in overseeing the
privacy implications of their own unmanned operations.128 President Obama recently issued a
new memorandum taking a similar approach, directing all federal agencies to evaluate the privacy
impact of their UAS operations and developing policies to mitigate such concerns.

FAA—Privacy Rules at the Test Sites and Beyond
In FRMA, Congress charged the FAA with integrating UAS into the national airspace.129 Since
passage of this legislation, the FAA has become the center of debate on the privacy implications
of these new aircraft. Some in the industry and law enforcement have questioned FAA’s authority
to regulate privacy at all, arguing that it is both outside its expertise and its legislative grant of
authority.130 Others have argued that precisely because the FAA is charged with integrating UAS
125

Boring v. Google, Inc., No. 09-2350, 362 Fed. Appx. 273 (3d Cir. 2013).
Id. at 279.
127
Id.
128
Senate Judiciary Hearing, supra note 3, at 51 (answer from Michael Toscano, President and Chief Executive
Officer, Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International).
129
P.L. 112-95, §332, 126 Stat. 123-24.
130
See, e.g., Press Release, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, AUVSI to FAA: Focus on your
Mission, Proceed with UAS Integration (Nov. 28, 2012) (“As an industry, we support a continued, civil dialogue on
privacy, but any such conversations should take place concurrent with the integration. The selection process for the six
test sites are a separate issue and should be treated as such. Meanwhile, the FAA should adhere to its mission and do
what it does best – focus on the safety of the U.S. airspace – while other, more appropriate institutions consider privacy
issues.”), available at http://www.auvsi.org/AUVSINews/AssociationNews.
126

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that it must resolve one of the most pressing issues involved with such integration—privacy.131 As
a general matter, the FAA has stated that its “mission does not include developing or enforcing
policies pertaining to privacy or civil liberties,”132 but several of its obligations in FMRA have
kept the FAA enmeshed in this privacy debate.
The first such obligation was FMRA’s mandate that the FAA establish six test sites to help
facilitate the integration of UAS into the national airspace. Neither the program requirements nor
the list of attributes for selecting the test sites expressly granted the FAA authority to regulate
privacy, or even mentioned “privacy” as a general matter of consideration.133 Nonetheless, the
FAA sought public comment on a proposed privacy policy for UAS operations at the sites on
February 22, 2013, and issued a final rule on November 14, 2013.134 The privacy rules, which are
contained as a provision in the contracts (known as an “Other Transaction Agreement,” or OTA)
between the FAA and each site operator include the following requirements: (1) operations at the
test sites must adhere to existing federal, state, and local laws regarding an individual’s right to
privacy; (2) the test site operator must develop a publicly available privacy policy that is
informed by the Fair Information Practice Principles (a generally accepted set of rules that
regulate how data should be stored, used, and disseminated); (3) the site operator must maintain a
record of all UAS operating at the test site; and (4) the site operator must require each UAS
operator to have a written plan for the operator’s use and retention of data collected by the
UAS.135 The authority to create these rules was purportedly under the FAA’s contracting authority
and not its general statutory authority.136 Although the FAA retains the authority to rescind an
OTA for a site operator in violation of existing privacy laws, ultimately, this privacy policy
signals a hands-off approach, leaving the policing of privacy rules to private parties affected by
operations at the test sites, to the test site operators themselves, and to local and state government
bodies that oversee the test site operators.137
Despite this relatively passive approach to privacy at the test sites, the FAA has recognized the
political and legal importance of privacy in both its proposed small UAS rule and its various
planning documents required under FMRA. On February 15, 2015, the FAA issued its proposed
operating requirements to allow small UAS (less than 55 pounds) to operate for non-hobby or
non-recreational purposes.138 As was expected, the FAA noted that privacy concerns “were
131
See Keith Laing, Markey: FAA Drone Plan ‘Falls Far Short,’ THE HILL (Nov. 7, 2013), available at
http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/189603-markey-faa-drone-plan-falls-far-short; Electronic Frontier Foundation,
The FAA Creates Thin Privacy Guidelines for the Nation’s First Domestic Drone “Test Sites,” (Dec. 10, 2013),
available at https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/12/faa-creates-thin-privacy-guidelines-nations-first-domestic-dronetest-sites.
132
See FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, INTEGRATION OF CIVIL UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS (UAS) IN THE
NATIONAL AIRSPACE SYSTEM (NAS) ROADMAP 11 (Nov. 7, 2013), available at https://www.faa.gov/uas/
legislative_programs/uas_roadmap/media/UAS_Roadmap_2013.pdf.
133
P.L. 112-95, §332(c), 126 Stat. 73-4 (2012).
134
Unmanned Aircraft System Test Site Program, 78 Fed. Reg. 68360 (Nov. 14, 2013).
135
Id. at 68,364.
136
Id. at 68,361 (“The FAA’s authority for including the Final Privacy Requirements in the Test Site OTAs is set forth
in 49 U.S.C. §106(l)(6). That statute authorizes the FAA Administrator to enter into an OTA ‘on such terms and
conditions as the Administrator may consider appropriate.’ The FAA believes that it is appropriate to comply with the
Final Privacy Requirements.”).
137
Id. at 68,632 (“[T]he FAA believes that Test Site operators will be responsive to local stakeholders’ privacy
concerns and will develop privacy policies appropriately for each Test Site. ... The FAA expects that [the test site
operators] will be responsive to stakeholders concerns.”).
138
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Federal
(continued...)

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beyond the scope of this rulemaking.”139 However, the FAA also noted it would participate in the
“multi-stakeholder engagement process” (described below) to assist in a privacy framework
concerning commercial and private use of drones. Also, in its five-year roadmap required under
FMRA, the FAA noted that while its primary mission “does not include developing or enforcing
policies pertaining to privacy or civil liberties, experience with the UAS test sites will present an
opportunity to inform the dialogue ... concerning the use of UAS technologies and the areas of
privacy and civil liberties.”140 Likewise, in its Comprehensive Plan, also required under FMRA,
the FAA devoted a whole section to highlighting the privacy and civil liberties concerns that all
federal agencies must take into account as UAS are integrated into the national airspace.141 While
safety will undoubtedly remain the top priority of FAA officials as it navigates the difficult task of
integrating drones in the national airspace, with its prominent role of testing and licensing both
government, commercial, and private use of drones, it will remain a significant voice in the
ongoing privacy debate.

President’s Memorandum on UAS and Privacy
On February 15, 2015, the same day the FAA issued its proposed small UAS rule, President
Obama issued a memorandum entitled “Promoting Economic Competitiveness While
Safeguarding Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties in Domestic Use of Unmanned Aircraft
Systems.”142 This presidential memorandum establishes two new frameworks relating to the
potential privacy implications of drone operations by both government and private actors.

UAS Policies and Procedures for Federal Government Use
The memorandum first observes that all operations conducted by federal agencies must comply
with the Constitution, federal law, and other applicable regulations and policies, an obligation to
which agencies are already subject. The memorandum requires that, prior to deployment of new
UAS technology and at least every three years, all federal agencies must “examine their existing
UAS policies and procedures relating to the collection, use, retention, and dissemination of
information obtained by UAS, to ensure that privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties are
protected.”143 Agencies that collect information through UAS shall ensure their policies and
procedures adhere to the following requirements:

(...continued)
Aviation Administration (Feb. 15, 2015), available at http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/rulemaking/
recently_published/media/2120-AJ60_NPRM_2-15-2015_joint_signature.pdf.
139
Id. at 36.
140
Federal Aviation Administration, Integration of Civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace
System (NAS) Roadmap (Nov. 7, 2013), available at https://www.faa.gov/uas/legislative_programs/uas_roadmap/
media/UAS_Roadmap_2013.pdf.
141
Federal Aviation Administration, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Comprehensive Plan: A Report on the
Nation’s UAS Path Forward 7 (Sept. 2013), available at https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/
agi/reports/media/UAS_Comprehensive_Plan.pdf.
142
Presidential Memorandum, supra note 2.
143
Beyond privacy, the President’s memorandum requires that agencies shall ensure they have policies in place that
prohibit the collection, use, retention, and dissemination of data in a manner that would violate the First Amendment or
would discriminate against persons based upon their ethnicity, race, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation,
or gender identity, in violation of law. See Presidential Memorandum, supra note 2.

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(i) Collection and Use. Agencies must only collect information using UAS, or UAS-collected
information, to the extent that such collection or use is consistent with and relevant to an
authorized purpose.
(ii) Retention. Information collected using UAS that may contain PII [personally identifiable
information] shall not be retained for more than 180 days unless retention of the information
is determined to be necessary to an authorized mission of the retaining agency, is maintained
in a system of records covered by the Privacy Act, or is required to be retained for a longer
period by any other applicable law or regulation.
(iii) Dissemination. UAS-collected information that is not maintained in a system of records
covered by the Privacy Act shall not be disseminated outside of the agency unless
dissemination is required by law, or fulfills an authorized purpose and complies with agency
requirements.

To ensure accountability, the memorandum requires, among other things, that agencies develop
protocols for receiving, investigating, and addressing potential privacy complaints; ensure they
have rules of conduct and training for federal government personnel and contractors; establish
meaningful oversight of individuals who have access to sensitive information collected by UAS;
develop policies and procedures to authorize the use of UAS in response to a request for UAS
assistance of federal, state, tribal, or territorial government operations; and ensure that local
entities that purchase UAS through federal funding have policies in place to safeguard privacy
and civil liberties prior to expending such funds.
To promote transparency, the memorandum requires agencies to provide notice to the public
regarding where the agency’s UAS are authorized to operate; keep the public informed about the
agency’s UAS program as well as changes that would significantly affect privacy; and make
available to the public, on an annual basis, a general summary of the agency’s UAS operations
during the previous fiscal year, to include a brief description of types or categories of missions
flown, and the number of times the agency provided assistance to other agencies, or to state,
local, tribal, or territorial governments.
The agencies must report to the President within 180 days from the date of the issuance of the
memorandum with a status on the implementation of these policies and procedures, and must
make these policies publicly available within one year.

Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Process for Commercial and Private UAS Use
The President’s memorandum also charges the Department of Commerce, through the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), to initiate “a multi-stakeholder
engagement process to develop a privacy framework regarding privacy, accountability, and
transparency for commercial and private UAS use.”144 The end result is expected to be a set of
voluntary best practices for privacy issues implicated by commercial and private UAS use.

144

Presidential Memorandum, supra note 8.

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Privacy Impact Assessments and Privacy Working Groups
Prior to the President’s memorandum, several federal agencies had taken steps to assess and
address the privacy impacts of their UAS operations. In September 2013, DHS’s Chief Privacy
Officer, in conjunction with CBP’s Office of Air and Marine, issued a Privacy Impact Assessment
(PIA) primarily evaluating the privacy impact of its operations at the U.S. border.145 This was
prompted, in part, by statutory obligations under federal law.
Under the E-Government Act of 2002, federal agencies must conduct a PIA before (1)
“developing or procuring information technology that collects, maintains, or disseminates
information that is in an identifiable form”; or (2) “initiating a new collection of information that
will be collected, maintained, or disseminated using information technology ... [and] includes
information in an identifiable form permitting the physical or online contacting of a specific
individual.”146 Specific to the Department of Homeland Security, under the Homeland Security
Act of 2002, DHS must conduct PIAs “of proposed rules of the Department or that of the
Department on the privacy of personal information, including the type of personal information
collected and the number of people affected.”147 More generally, the Privacy Officer of DHS is
required to coordinate with the Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to ensure that “(A)
programs, policies, and procedures involving civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy
considerations are addressed in an integrated and comprehensive manner; and (B) Congress
receives appropriate reports on such programs, policies, and procedures.”148
DHS’s PIA evaluated the various uses of UAS in DHS’s operations, including its operations at the
border, and concluded that such operations have minimal privacy impact. Because current DHS
operations limit flights to an altitude of 19,000 feet, the report noted that cameras on UAS do not
permit the operator to specifically identify people on the ground nor do they use technology that
sees through walls or collects information regarding the interior of buildings. The report noted
that personally identifiable information (PII) is generally not retrieved, but that images may later
be associated with specific individuals if they are apprehended and the surveillance feed is
associated with them. Acknowledging that UAS can stay in flight longer than traditional aircraft,
the report concludes that the privacy impact of this technological difference is mitigated by
various safeguards including well-defined flight operations, restrictions on accessing collected
data, and security protocols for storing data. It is likely that DHS will utilize this PIA when
developing any new policies and procedures required by the President’s new memorandum.
In addition to PIAs, in late 2012, DHS’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and its
Privacy Office spearheaded the “Working Group to Safeguard Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil
Liberties in the Department’s Use and Support of Unmanned Aerial Systems.”149 The working
group was intended to assess all active and planned uses of UAS by the various components of
DHS and flag any privacy or civil liberties issues potentially raised by such operations. The goal
145

Privacy Impact Assessment, supra note 29.
44 U.S.C. §3501 (note).
147
6 U.S.C. §142.
148
6 U.S.C. §142(a)(5).
149
Dep’t of Homeland Security, Working Group to Safeguard Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties in the
Department’s Use and Support of Unmanned Aerial Systems (Sept. 14, 2012), available at https://www.dhs.gov/sites/
default/files/publications/foia/working-group-to-safeguard-privacy-civil-rights-and-civil-liberties-in-the-departmentsuse-and-support-of-unmanned-aerial-systems-uas-s1-information-memorandum-09142012.pdf.
146

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was to develop a set of best practices for safeguarding these various legal interests, and it was
reported in September 2014 that such a document would be out by the end of 2014.150 DHS has
yet to release this best practices document. It may be that this document will be subsumed into the
larger obligations placed on DHS through the President’s new memorandum.

DOJ Inspector General UAS Report
There has been some debate within DOJ concerning the extent to which unmanned aerial
surveillance differs from manned aerial surveillance, and whether these differences warrant new
rules for deploying UAS in law enforcement operations. A report issued by DOJ’s Office of
Inspector General explained that both the FBI and ATF did not see a practical difference in how
UAS collect evidence as compared to their manned counterparts.151 As such, these entities did not
see a need to develop specialized UAS privacy protocols. DOJ’s Inspector General disagreed with
the assessment of the FBI and ATF and concluded the following in its interim report:
We found that the technological capabilities of UAS and the current, uncoordinated approach
of DOJ components to UAS use may merit the DOJ developing consistent, UAS-specific
policies to guide the proper use of UAS. Unlike manned aircraft, UAS can be used in close
proximity to a home and, with longer-lasting power systems, may be capable of flying for
several hours or even days at a time, raising unique concerns about privacy and the collection
of evidence with UAS. Considering that multiple components are using or have the potential
to use UAS, we believe the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG), which has the
primary responsibility within DOJ for formulating cross-component law enforcement
policies, should consider the need for a DOJ-wide policy regarding UAS uses that could
have significant privacy or other legal implications.152

This conclusion that unmanned operations pose a unique and potentially greater privacy threat
than manned operations mirrors that of the President’s new memorandum on UAS operations.
Even when DOJ, like all other federal agencies using UAS, adopts specific policies and
procedures addressing the privacy impact of its UAS operations, this inevitably prompts the
question whether federal agencies should be left to police their own surveillance activities. While
praising the White House drone memorandum as “an important and welcome step in advancing
drone technology,” one commentator noted that the memo itself “does not establish strong
privacy and transparency drone standards for agencies, leaving it up to the agencies to develop
these standards.”153 He continues: “Because the memo’s requirements are not specific, the drone
policies the agencies set for themselves will be key to how individuals’ privacy is actually
protected. Congress still has a role to play in setting strong privacy and transparency standards for
drone use.”154

150

DEP’T OF HOMELAND SECURITY, PRIVACY OFFICE, 2014 ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS 19 (Sept. 30, 2014), available
at http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/dhs-privacy-office-2014-annual-report-FINAL.pdf.
151
DOJ Inspector General Report, supra note 33, at ii.
152
Id.
153
Harley Geiger, White House Drone Memo Right to Focus on Privacy, Center for Democracy and Technology (Feb.
15, 2015), available at https://cdt.org/press/white-house-drone-memo-right-to-focus-on-privacy/.
154
Id.

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Congress
Several measures were introduced in the 113th Congress that would have restricted both publicand private-actor domestic UAS operations, and reintroduction of these bills is likely in the 114th
Congress. The proposed regulations in these bills range from warrant requirements for law
enforcement operations to comprehensive data collection and minimization statements to privacytort-like prohibitions against private-actor intrusions. Additionally, Congress has utilized its
oversight authority to hold hearings and probe executive branch agencies to disclose when and
where they are using drones and the potential privacy implications of such uses.

Legislation
Drone Aircraft Privacy and Transparency Act of 2013 (S. 1639, H.R. 2868)
In the 113th Congress, Senator Ed Markey and Representative Peter Welch introduced nearly
identical legislation entitled the Drone Aircraft Privacy and Transparency Act of 2013 (S. 1639,
H.R. 2868).155 These bills would have amended FMRA to create a comprehensive scheme to
regulate both government and private-actor use of drones, including data collection requirements,
a warrant requirement for law enforcement, and various enforcement mechanisms.
First, these bills would have required the Secretary of Transportation, with input from the
Secretary of Commerce, the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, and the Chief Privacy
Officer of the Department of Homeland Security, to study any potential threats to privacy
protections posed by the introduction of drones in the national airspace. They would have
prohibited the FAA from issuing a license to operate a drone unless the application included a
“data collection statement.” This statement would have had to include a list of individuals who
would have the authority to operate the drone; the location in which the drone would be used; the
maximum period it would be used; and whether the drone would be collecting information about
individuals. If the drone would be used to collect personal information, the statement would have
had to provide the circumstances in which such information would be used; the kinds of
information collected and the conclusions drawn from it; the type of data minimization
procedures to be employed; whether the information would be sold, and if so, under what
circumstances; how long the information would be stored; and the procedures for destroying
irrelevant data.
The statement also would have had to include information about the possible impact on privacy
protections posed by the operation under that license and steps to be taken to mitigate this impact.
Additionally, the statement would have had to include the contact information of the drone
operator; a process for determining what information had been collected about an individual; and
a process for challenging the accuracy of such data. Finally, the FAA would have been required to
post the data collection statement on the Internet.
In addition to the data collection statement, any law enforcement agency which operates a drone
would have had to file a “data minimization statement” with the FAA. This statement would have
required adoption of policies by the agency that minimize the collection of information and data
unrelated to the investigation of a crime under a warrant; required the destruction of data that is
155

S. 1639, 113th Cong. (2013); H.R. 2868, 113th Cong. (2013).

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no longer relevant to the investigation of a crime; established procedures for the method of such
destruction; and established oversight and audit procedures to ensure the agency operates a UAS
in accordance with the data collection statement filed with the FAA.
S. 1639 and H.R. 2868 would have provided several enforcement mechanisms. First, the FAA
could have revoked a license of a user that did not comply with these requirements. The Federal
Trade Commission would have had the primary authority to enforce the data collection
requirements. Additionally, the Attorney General of each state, or an official or agency of a state,
would have been empowered to file a civil suit if there was reason to believe that the privacy
interests of residents of that state had been threatened or adversely affected. These bills would
have also created a private right of action for a person injured by a violation of this legislation.
These bills would also have prohibited a governmental entity from using a drone, or obtaining
information from another person using a drone, for protective activities, or for law enforcement or
intelligence purposes, except with a warrant. This prohibition would not apply in “exigent
circumstances,” which was defined to mean imminent danger of death or serious physical injury
or high risk of terrorist attack as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Preserving Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act of 2013 (S. 1016, H.R.
972)
Senator Rand Paul and Representative Austin Scott’s companion bills, the Preserving Freedom
from Unwarranted Surveillance Act of 2013 (S. 1016, H.R. 972), would have focused exclusively
on government drone operations.156 These bills would have required any entity acting under the
authority of the federal government to obtain a warrant based upon probable cause before
conducting drone surveillance to investigate violations of criminal law or regulations. S. 1016 and
H.R. 972 included several exceptions to this warrant requirement: (1) when necessary to prevent
or deter illegal entry of any persons or illegal substances into the United States; (2) when a law
enforcement officer possesses reasonable suspicion that under particular circumstances “swift
action to prevent imminent danger to life or serious damage to property, or to forestall the
imminent escape of a suspect, or destruction of evidence” is necessary; or (3) when the Secretary
of Homeland Security determines credible intelligence indicates a high risk of a terrorist attack by
a specific individual or organization. H.R. 972 would have created a right to sue for any violation
of its prohibitions. Unlike H.R. 972, S. 1016 included an express exclusionary rule for evidence
obtained in violation of the act.

Preserving American Privacy Act of 2013 (H.R. 637)
Representative Ted Poe introduced the Preserving American Privacy Act of 2013 (H.R. 637),
which would have regulated both public and private use of drones under various mechanisms.157
As to law enforcement use, H.R. 637 would have created a general prohibition on the use of
drones to collect covered information or disclose covered information so collected. “Covered
information” was defined as “information that is reasonably likely to enable identification of an
156

H.R. 972, 113th Cong. (2013). Senator Rand Paul filed similar legislation in the 112th Congress, but did not reintroduce it in the 113th Congress. See S. 3287, 112th Cong. (2012). Unlike H.R. 972, S. 3287 included an express
exclusionary rule for evidence obtained in violation of the act.
157
H.R. 637, 113th Cong. (2013).

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individual” or “information about an individual’s property that is not in plain view.” This
prohibition was subject to the following exceptions: (1) law enforcement obtains a court-issued
warrant and serves a copy of the warrant on the target of the search within 10 days of the
surveillance. However, notice need not be provided if it would jeopardize an ongoing criminal or
national security investigation.(2) Law enforcement obtains a court-issued order based upon
“specific and articulable facts showing a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity and a
reasonable probability” that the operation “will provide evidence of such criminal activity.” The
order may authorize surveillance in a stipulated public area for no more than 48 hours which may
be renewed for a total of 30 days. Notice of the operation must be provided to the target no later
than 10 days after the operation. Alternatively, notice may be provided not less than 48 hours
before the operation in a major publication, on a government website, or with signs posted in the
area of the operation. (3) Operation is within 25 miles of national border. (4)The targeted
individual has provided prior written consent. (5) Emergency situation involves danger of death
or serious physical injury, conspiratorial activities threatening the national security interest, or
conspiratorial activities characteristic of organized crime, where a warrant cannot be obtained
with due diligence. Law enforcement must then obtain a warrant within 48 hours of such
operation. Any evidence obtained in violation of this act would not have been admissible in any
trial or adjudicative proceeding.
Additionally, H.R. 637 would have required any governmental entity applying for a certificate or
license to operate a UAS to also file a data collection statement with the Attorney General, which
would have included the purpose for which the UAS will be used; whether the UAS is capable of
collecting covered information; the length of time the information will be retained; a point of
contact for citizen feedback; the particular unit of governmental entity responsible for safe and
appropriate operation of the UAS; the rank and title of the individual who may authorize the
operation of the UAS; the applicable data minimization policies barring the collection of covered
information unrelated to the investigation of crime and requiring the destruction of covered
information that is no longer relevant to the investigation of a crime; and applicable audit and
oversight procedures.
Under H.R. 637, the Attorney General would have been empowered to request that the Secretary
of Transportation revoke the license or certificate of any entity that fails to file a data collection
statement. Further, H.R. 637 contained a provision permitting administrative discipline against an
officer who intentionally violates a provision of this act.
H.R. 637 would also have made it unlawful to intentionally operate a private UAS to capture
images in a manner highly offensive to a reasonable person where the person is engaging in a
personal or familial activity under circumstances in which the individual has a reasonable
expectation of privacy, regardless of whether there is a physical trespass.158

Oversight
In addition to its authority to enact federal law, Congress can and has utilized its oversight
function to shape the debate surrounding the privacy implications of drone surveillance. For
instance, both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees held hearings in the 113th Congress
specifically addressing the privacy impact of drone operations. Additionally, individual members
probed executive branch officials on when and where they were using drones and the potential
158

H.R. 637, 113th Cong. (2013).

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privacy implications of such uses. One such example of this oversight function is demonstrated
by correspondence between the Senator Rand Paul and the FBI in the summer of 2013. In a July
25, 2013, letter to FBI Director Mueller, Senator Paul asked how the Bureau defined “reasonable
expectation of privacy” in the context of UAS surveillance, as Paul feared that “an overbroad
interpretation of this protection would enable more substantial information collection on an
individual in a circumstance they might not have believed was subject to surveillance.”159 The
FBI responded by arguing that based on the Supreme Court’s three aerial surveillance cases from
the 1980s, it need not obtain a warrant for any surveillance “open to public view” and that the
“Fourth Amendment principles applicable to manned aerial surveillance discussed in these cases
apply equally to UAVs.”160 Similar oversight is likely to continue in the 114th Congress.

States
Justice Brandeis once observed that “it is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a
single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and
economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”161 Some have argued that under
this theory of federalism, the states are best situated to experiment with various UAS policies to
determine the most appropriate legal framework for their state.162 Others have countered that
applying a patchwork of 50 different privacy regimes would be overburdensome on both public
and private users of UAS. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), by
the end of 2014, 20 states had enacted laws addressing UAS issues.163
State laws in this area have mainly come in three forms. The first, and perhaps most numerous,
are laws that create broad prohibitions on their own state law enforcement entities, subject to
various exceptions that differ from state to state.164 These exceptions include obtaining a warrant
based upon probable cause; countering a high risk of terrorist attack; responding to threats of
imminent harm of human life; locating a missing person; and conducting crime scene and traffic
photography, among others. The second category relates to use restrictions of data collected by
UAS. For instance, Illinois requires law enforcement to destroy all information gathered by a
UAS within 30 days of collection unless there is reasonable suspicion that the information
contains evidence of criminal activity or the information is relevant to an ongoing criminal
investigation.165 While the relevancy standard is a very low evidentiary threshold, it does prevent
limitless retention of private data. Similarly, Alaska prohibits the retention of records collected by
drones unless it is required as part of an investigation or prosecution, is used for training
purposes, or is required by federal or state law.166 Images that are retained under Alaska’s statute
are considered confidential and not subject to the state’s public records laws. The third category
159
Letter from Senator Rand Paul to Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller (July 25, 2013),
available at http://www.paul.senate.gov/files/documents/072513Paulresponse.pdf.
160
Letter from Stephen D. Kelly, Assistant Director, Office of Congressional Affairs, Dep’t of Justice to Senator Rand
Paul (July 29, 2013), available at http://www.paul.senate.gov/files/documents/072913FBIResponse.pdf.
161
New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262 (1932) (Brandeis, J., dissenting).
162
See Bennett, supra note 12; Kaminski, supra note 12.
163
National Conference of State Legislatures, 2014 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Legislation, available at
http://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/2014-state-unmanned-aircraft-systems-uas-legislation.aspx
164
See, e.g., ALASKA STAT. §18.65.902; FLA. STAT. ANN. §934.50.
165
725 ILL. COMP. STAT. §167/20.
166
ALASKA. CODE §18.65.902.

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relates to regulation of private actors, generally through the creation of private causes of action
for privacy invasions caused by UAS surveillance. For instance, Idaho prohibits recording
individuals on their residence without their consent, or from photographing an individual for the
purpose of publishing or otherwise publicly disseminating such photograph no matter where the
target is located.167 Undoubtedly, this third category of proposals creates tension between the
public’s First Amendment right to gather news and the individual privacy interests at stake,
requiring legislatures to fine tune this balance when enacting UAS legislation.

Author Contact Information
(name redacted)
Legislative Attorney
[redacted]@crs.loc.gov, 7-....

167

IDAHO CODE §21-213.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/crs%3AR43965. Public record. Not legal advice.