Tania P.

Gonzalez
Professor Melina Probst Martin
English 1101
30 December 2016
Compromised Privacy
The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states the right of the people to be
secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,
shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be
seized. Two hundred and twenty five years ago the Fourth Amendment was written with the
intent to secure the privacy and safety of U.S. citizens, only to become meaningless with today's
use of drones because property rights and privacy laws only protect home/land owners from
drones to an extent. With the advancement in technology, drones pose a greater threat to the
privacy of residents, making their safety more vulnerable because drones travel at much lower
altitudes than planes. This should be initiative for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to
protect the rights of individuals by regulating the use of drones.
To begin, drones convey a much greater distress and threat to privacy in contrast to
planes, which travel at higher altitudes, and are regulated by the FAA. According to Michael
Froomkin, Professor of Law at University of Miami and writer of, YES: Our Privacy and Safety
Are at Risk, Property rights in the curtilage include the right to sell the land and, crucially, the
right to exclude others. Before airplanes, the right to exclude went up indefinitely; now it usually
ends at 500 feet. This shows that anything within the 500 feet of your property is trespassing,

and in the same way that someone who trespasses into your yard is held liable for such offenses,
a drone operator can be convicted as well. The pending regulations makes it easy for outside
sources to violate an individuals right of privacy.
Due to the improvement in technology, drones are capable of filming and recording
sound which creates an even larger privacy risk considering their versatility. Calo, assistant

professor of law at the University of Washington and writer of Should You Be Allowed to
Prevent Drones From Flying Over Your Property?, states, Today, camera-wielding drones can
peer through windows and skylights even from great height; increasingly sophisticated sensors
on the drawing board promise even greater surveillance power. In a country where there may be
seven million drones flying by 2020, giving them free rein to fly over private property would
be enormously destructive to everyones privacy. Predictably, this issue is just going to grow as
technology continues to advance. Steps need to be taken to put a stop on this issue as it continues
to become problematic to the privacy and security to individuals.
In addition, drones shouldn't be given the legal right to fly over private property in
defiance of the wishes

of the landowner. In the article, How Google Dominates Us, James

Gleick, the American author claims, Privacy is not something that can be counted, divided, or
traded....privacy involves not just managing our reputation but protecting the inner life we may
not want to share(Gleick). Drones would facilitate the practice of spying. A specific example
where there was a violation to a right of privacy, the "Star Wars kid portrayed how a family was
made more vulnerable to harassment online due to a violation of privacy. This issue was further
analysed by Daniel J. Solove, the John Marshall Harlan research professor of Law at the George
Washington University Law School, states The video was found by some of the boy's

tormentors, who uploaded it to an Internet video site. It became an instant hit with a multitude of
fans. All across the blogosphere, people started mocking the boy, making fun of him for being
pudgy, awkward and nerdy(Calo 2). The star wars kid growing up could have potentially
experienced a post traumatic stress due to the amount of attention and criticism he received for a
video that was never supposed to become public. Now, consider a similar scenario happening to
you or a family member, but this time it is by-product of drone use. The lack of strict regulation
on drones would enable them to invade almost all aspects of privacy, leaving no such thing as a
private life.
Although drones pose a threat to the privacy of individuals, it is argued that they can
benefit people as a tool such as media coverage and advancements in delivery of goods to
homes. Calo agrees with the previous claim, saying, There will be no end to the uses
Americans dream up for drones once we solve the difficult problems of energy storage and
autonomous flight. Companies want to use drones to revolutionize the way they deliver goods to
offices and homes. Journalists want to use drones to cover breaking news, or to access spaces
denied to them by local officials. Activists want to use them to hold police accountable during a
protest. Police have used them to locate a missing child.(Calo 5) There is no doubt drones have
the capability of making the world a better place by improving security and rescue operations.
However, without restrictions and laws in place, drones have the capacity of becoming a weapon
of destruction of Americans rights to privacy and security. Calo, then states the consequences of
removing the vertical curtilage, Generally, the government needs a warrant to intrude on
private property, but doesnt need one to conduct surveillance from public places-including what
the Supreme Court has called public navigable airspace.(Calo 3) In making this comment, he

argues that the privacy of an individual would be almost nonexistent if the government was lifted
of these restrictions regarding privacy. Realistically speaking, drones have become the biggest
threat to the Fourth Amendment yet.

Government use of drones for surveillance and spying is a primary concern to many that
disregards the privacy of citizens. There is much evidence to conclude that companies and the
government already monitor and collect personal information from the simplest device owned by
millions, the cell phone. Moreover, founder of TeachPrivacy, Solove writes The government
also compromises privacy by assembling vast databases that can be searched for suspicious
patterns of behavior. The National Security Agency listens and examines the records of millions
of telephone conversations. Other agencies analyze financial transactions (Solove 3). Many
would argue that its part of the social contract, signed when agreeing to live under protection
of government. But at what point does living under government protection, acquire the
confidential aspects of your life to become negotiated for a sense of security? The government is
already tapping into the rights of privacy, enabling the loose regulation of drones would only
further this concern.
Drones are a consumer good which cant be restricted in sale, and are used by 2.5
million this year alone, only estimated to increase by 4.5 million by 2020. Because, this is a
growing industry more complications regarding privacy are bound to arise. As previously
addressed, drones serve various purposes to further society. With such a large amount of
consumers and a lack of policies in place to secure the privacy of individuals, it is important to
consider the likelihood of abuse and disruption of drones; the government or neighbor. The

solution isnt shooting them down or engaging in a lawsuit, but rather to promote stringent
policies and laws to decimate abuse from occurring

Works Cited:
Gleick, James. "How Google Dominates Us." The New York Review of Books. N.p., 18
Aug. 2011. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
Solove, Daniel J. "The End of Privacy?:." Scientific American. N.p., Sept. 2008. Web. 5
Dec. 2016.
Weber, John. "Should You Be Allowed to Prevent Drones From Flying Over Your
Property?"The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 22 May 2016. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
"Fourth Amendment." LII / Legal Information Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.