WASHINGTON — As domestic drone use takes on a higher profile nationally, it is unclear which federal agency will take the lead in addressing privacy concerns, experts at a House subcommittee hearing said Feb. 15.
“At best, we can say it’s unknown at this point,” said Gerald Dillingham, director of Physical Infrastructure Issues at the Government Accountability Office, told the House science subcommittee. “From our perspective, that’s one of the big obstacles to integration – that is public acceptance, public education, public concern about how their data will be used.”
The Federal Aviation Administration is required by law to plan integration of drones into U.S. airspace by 2015; privacy advocates fear the implications the move could have on Americans’ civil liberties. Although the FAA has said it will examine privacy issues, the agency has acknowledged that it cannot issue specific legislation.
The House hearing came one day after the FAA announced it is soliciting proposals for six drone test sites, which will adhere to federal and state privacy regulations and make their privacy policies publicly available, the agency said.
“The FAA recognizes that increasing the use of [drones] raises privacy concerns,” according to a letter the agency sent this week to Marc Rotenberg, president of Electronic Privacy Information Center, a civil liberties group. “The agency intends to address these issues through engagement and collaboration with the public.”
At the hearing, Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., said the American public is “frightened” about the potential of drones to infringe on their Fourth Amendment rights.
“I’m extremely interested in making sure that we protect those privacy issues and civil rights issues,” Broun said.
Privacy concerns in part delayed the agency’s creation of test sites for domestic drones by the end of 2012, a deadline outlined in the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. The test sites are designed to ensure the drones don’t collide with planes in the sky or risk the safety of people and property on the ground.
In a September report, the GAO recommended that the Department of Transportation, the Department of Homeland Security and the Attorney General determine whether any measures should regulate the data that is collected through drones.
At a convention last week sponsored by the drone industry’s leading trade group, Jim Williams of the FAA said the agency lacks the authority to make and enforce rules relating to privacy.
“We can ask [the industry] to take into consideration the privacy issue … There aren’t any rules to date on that,” Williams said at the convention organized by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
Amie Stepanovich, a legal counsel at EPIC, said the FAA’s privacy plan for test sites is a positive development but emphasized the agency’s need to further address privacy concerns.
“The FAA is in a unique position to receive information from drone operations,” Stepanovich said. “This information is vitally important in ensuring drone operations are conducted in a transparent and accountable manner.”
