Ana Flores

Dr. Malina
English 1101-124
December 6, 2016
The Right to Prevent Drones from Flying over Private Property
Technology has helped the world improve in many ways. Something new is always being
invented to makes things run faster and smoother. Currently they have invented drones so that
they can help with delivering things quicker, crowd monitoring, search and rescue operations,
and much more. I do believe that this technology can be useful in many ways. However, it is not
okay to allow drones to fly over private property without having permission to do so. It is not a
problem to allow drones to be used in public places, but invading someones private property is
unethical. It violates our rights, and it can be a concern to someones safety.
Having privacy is right for everyone. The privacy in our homes is essential to us because
it is what makes us feel safe. We should not take our right for granted. Drones can violate our
privacy because we never know if there is a small hidden camera on them or what information is
collected from us. We live in a world where a lot of our privacy is already being taken away
without our consent. In the article The end of Privacy Solove says:
Thousands of government bodies at the federal and state level have records of personal
information, chronicling births, marriages, employment, property ownership and more.
The information is often stored in public records, making it readily accessible to anyone
and the trend toward more accessible personal data continues to grow as more records
become electronic(3).
Allowing drones to pass over private property is another way that can be used to gather more
information about our private lives. Some will argue that we should give authorities the right to
pass over private properties, and that way we do not have to worry about privacy being taken
away. It could be used to help authorities such as policemen to catch a criminal. I have thought
about that as well. The policemen can use drones to catch criminals, find missing children, and

monitor bad neighborhoods. On the other hand, that is still problematic. There is no way for us to
know when it is a drone from the authorities. Criminals can also use this to their advantage to
spy on people and use the drones as a weapons. The privacy at home is all we have. It should not
be taken away by a drone just so that things can be delivered quickly. Not many countries are as
fortunate to have the right to privacy. American soldiers sacrificed their lives, so that we can
have the right to privacy.
Not only is it unethical for drones to fly over private property but it violates the fourth
amendment and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reserved airspace. The FAA reserved
airspace restricts airplanes from flying below 500 feet. If someone flies a drone over your land
below the FAAs reserved airspace, the drone operator is, quite simply, trespassing in the same
way as if the operator ran through your backyard(Froomkin 2). A drone and an airplane are
similar when it comes to our privacy rights. They both put at risk our privacy. The fourth
amendment states: [t]he 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. (Cornell). A drone might not have
actual people looking at your private property, but it can have hidden cameras. According to the
Fourth Amendment that is violating our privacy. Allowing drones to fly over your private
property should be someones personal decision. No one has the right to be forced to let drones
fly over private property.
Drones can be a great way to get things delivered to you quickly. However, our safety is a
concern. As Froomkin says in Should You Be Allowed to Prevent Drones From Flying Over
Your Property?:If we give drones overflight rights, every time you see one in the air you will
have reason to fear it may be spying on you or could crash. And lets not even talk about armed

drones (1). Without our right to privacy we will not know what a drone is being used for. That is
alarming because they can be used in negative ways. According to The National Violence
Against Women Survey (NVAW): 8% of women and 2% of men have been stalked at some time
during their lives. This means that 1 out of every 12 women, and 1 out of every 45 men have
been stalked during their lives (2). It is terrifying that stalking is an issue. With Drones it can
increase that percentage. People have the right to be concerned if drones have hidden cameras
that can be used to spy on them, if they are going to break down in their yard, and if criminals
are using them as weapons. The advancement of technology has caused us to loose our right to
privacy. Our privacy is being taken way with out of knowing. James Gleick talks about how our
privacy is being taken away when we use google. In his article How Google Dominate Us he
states: Google seemed to be everywhere and seems to know everything and offends against
cherished nations of privacy (5). If google has a way to take away our privacy drones can do so
as well. In order to deliver packages they will need our personal information. It is best not to risk
our self .We have the right to decide if we want to allow drones to fly over private property.
Allowing drones to fly over private property would be a big mistake. It violates are fourth
amendment. We have the right to prevent drones from flying in our property. We cannot let the
fourth amendment be taken away from us. Soldiers sacrificed their lives for a reason. We need to
take in to consideration that drones can also be a concern to our safety. There are ways for drones
to be used as weapons and stalking. They can also malfunction and cause people to get hurt.
Drones can be helpful in some ways but we have the right to prevent them from flying over
private property.

Work cited
J. Solove, Daniel. The end of privacy? scientific American, 2008.
http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v299/n3/full/scientificamerican0908-100.html
Froomkin, A. Micheal Should You Be Allowed to Prevent Drones From Flying Over
Your Property? the wall street journal. http://www.wsj.com/articles/should-you-be-allowed-toprevent-drones-from-flying-over-your-property-1463968981
Glerick, Games. How Google Dominate Us New York Reviews of Books, 2011.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/08/18/how-google-dominates-us/
Cornel, https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/fourth_amendment
Thoennes, Nancy. Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women U.S.
Department of Justice, 1998. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/172837.pdf