OTI Supports New Best Practices for Drone Privacy as a Good Start

Today, New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) joins a range of civil society groups, tech industry representatives, and academics in supporting a newly developed set of best practices for drone privacy. These best practices, which were crafted for non-governmental unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), are the result of a year-long collaborative process convened by the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and initiated by President Obama.

The President’s February 2015 mandate to the NTIA established a series of multistakeholder meetings that kicked off in August 2015. OTI has been involved in the multistakeholder process since last spring, beginning with our April 2015 comments on Privacy, Transparency, and Accountability Regarding Commercial and Private Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems. The best practices OTI endorses today offer a starting point for protecting privacy as drones become more prevalent in domestic airspace. Further, they will allow the still-nascent drone industry to grow while also shaping industry practices so they are privacy-protective.

The best practices, designed for adoption by private and commercial operators, recommend a number of safeguards to protect privacy interests, including:

• Advance notification of drone flights that will intentionally collect data that identifies or could be linked to a particular person;

• Limits on the collection and use of data without consent;

• Avoidance of continuous, persistent data collection and surveillance;

• Minimization of drone operation over private property; and

• Adoption of strong data security practices

The following can be attributed to Kevin Bankston, director of New America’s Open Technology Institute:

“The drone privacy practices agreed to today boil down to this: don’t be a jerk, respect people’s privacy expectations, and be transparent about your practices, unless you have a really good reason. Although I hesitate to call them ‘best’ practices, these consensus principles are an important first step in establishing clear rules of the road for drone operators, and represent the strongest possible outcome of a multistakeholder process that necessarily involved the very companies and people whose behavior we were seeking to influence. This type of self-regulation shouldn’t preclude real regulation, and we look forward to continued conversation about how lawmakers can best address growing concerns about drones and privacy. However, we greatly appreciate President Obama’s commitment to protecting privacy and promoting responsible drone use, and thank the NTIA for their leadership throughout this process.”

The best practices were written in such a manner that they might be accessible to and adopted by a wide variety of UAS operators, whether amateur or professional, individuals or entire industries. The real estate, agriculture, news media, delivery, and land surveying sectors already have found UAS to be a great asset in their work, and more beneficial uses of drones are being innovated every day.

The following can be attributed to Liz Woolery, policy analyst at the Open Technology Institute:

“The best practices we endorse today are mindful of both the exciting potential for and the implications of widespread, domestic, private, and commercial UAS use. Drones may offer much-needed solutions for a number of industries that use aerial photography but find the alternatives cost-prohibitive. However, we must strike a careful balance between those interests and the interests of average people who are concerned about—and may end up subjected to—new modes of private surveillance due to the proliferation of drones. These best practices are a good start toward finding that balance.”