For this weeks blog it has been tasked to "addresses a basic strategy to ensure successful implementation of an unmanned system within known limitations." When implementing an unmanned aerial system into the the government or private sector certain issues must be discussed and resolved in order to ensure success. This blog will touch base on a few of these issues in the government and federal sector of unmanned aerial systems. Those issues being: Privacy, Ethics, Safety, and lost link/loss of system control.
Privacy is a main concern when dealing with unmanned aerial systems. In many cases, especially in the United States, the use of drone surveillance by federal or government entities, such as police stations or military installations on private citizens is seen as "Big Brother" keeping an eye on the populous and is said to violate the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (Bill of Rights) guarantees that “(t)he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects of 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.” which many have taken the use of UASs for surveillance to be a violation of this amendment. To combat against this the Department of Transportation created a UAS Privacy Policy in an attempt to "to ensuring that any use of UAS in support of Departmental programs balances programmatic requirements with the need to respect personal privacy and protect individual civil rights and civil liberties...prior to deployment of new UAS technology and at least every 3 years, 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"(“UAS privacy policy,” 2016). These privacy need to be taken into affect to not only protect the populous' privacy but also their safety.
Safety concerns must be taken into concern not only with the UAS itself but with the general population when flying UASs close to populated areas. Certain incidents have occurred where safety concerns were called into question regarding UASs. "In 2007, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported that pilot error was the cause of an April 2006 Predator B crash, as the team piloting the UAV accidentally turned the engine off."(Finn & Wright, 2012). This incident though did not have any human causalities or injury it did have the potential and the potential of safety concerns have to be looked at and prevented.
In the ethical consideration of UASs this aspect deals mostly with military grade UAVs. It is the thought that unmanned systems since they are "unmanned" will indiscriminately eliminate targets.
In relation to civil applications, Hayes, of Big Brother Watch, states that “drones and other robotic tools will add to the risks of a Playstation mentality.where bodies are objectified into “things to track, monitor, apprehend, and kill" (Finn & Wright, 2012) This is a high possibility that must be taken into consideration. The distinction of what is an active or "hostile" target is a rigor that RPA pilots must continually analyze and correspond with surveillance and intelligence gathering officials before elimination of the target is done. Unmanned systems are never truly "unmanned" a human aspect is usually at the helm of the controls.
References:
Finn, R. L., & Wright, D. (2012). Unmanned aircraft systems: Surveillance, ethics and privacy in civil applications. Computer Law & Security Review, 28(2), 184–194. doi:10.1016/j.clsr.2012.01.005
UAS privacy policy. (2016, June 7). Retrieved December 12, 2016, from https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/privacy/uas-privacy-policy
Privacy is a main concern when dealing with unmanned aerial systems. In many cases, especially in the United States, the use of drone surveillance by federal or government entities, such as police stations or military installations on private citizens is seen as "Big Brother" keeping an eye on the populous and is said to violate the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (Bill of Rights) guarantees that “(t)he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects of 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.” which many have taken the use of UASs for surveillance to be a violation of this amendment. To combat against this the Department of Transportation created a UAS Privacy Policy in an attempt to "to ensuring that any use of UAS in support of Departmental programs balances programmatic requirements with the need to respect personal privacy and protect individual civil rights and civil liberties...prior to deployment of new UAS technology and at least every 3 years, 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"(“UAS privacy policy,” 2016). These privacy need to be taken into affect to not only protect the populous' privacy but also their safety.
Safety concerns must be taken into concern not only with the UAS itself but with the general population when flying UASs close to populated areas. Certain incidents have occurred where safety concerns were called into question regarding UASs. "In 2007, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported that pilot error was the cause of an April 2006 Predator B crash, as the team piloting the UAV accidentally turned the engine off."(Finn & Wright, 2012). This incident though did not have any human causalities or injury it did have the potential and the potential of safety concerns have to be looked at and prevented.
In the ethical consideration of UASs this aspect deals mostly with military grade UAVs. It is the thought that unmanned systems since they are "unmanned" will indiscriminately eliminate targets.
In relation to civil applications, Hayes, of Big Brother Watch, states that “drones and other robotic tools will add to the risks of a Playstation mentality.where bodies are objectified into “things to track, monitor, apprehend, and kill" (Finn & Wright, 2012) This is a high possibility that must be taken into consideration. The distinction of what is an active or "hostile" target is a rigor that RPA pilots must continually analyze and correspond with surveillance and intelligence gathering officials before elimination of the target is done. Unmanned systems are never truly "unmanned" a human aspect is usually at the helm of the controls.
References:
Finn, R. L., & Wright, D. (2012). Unmanned aircraft systems: Surveillance, ethics and privacy in civil applications. Computer Law & Security Review, 28(2), 184–194. doi:10.1016/j.clsr.2012.01.005
UAS privacy policy. (2016, June 7). Retrieved December 12, 2016, from https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/privacy/uas-privacy-policy
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that safety concerns and the privacy issue are the largest of opponents to the support of drones in the commercial and public sector of the U.S. right now. Privacy and safety must be upheld, for support for drones to be used in a large fashion. As I have stated in other posts, the use of drones by federal agencies in the open public will always bring scrutiny and the concern of “Big Brother” acquisitions against the government. I also believe though that ethics and drone usage play hand-in-hand when it comes to drones operating commercially. This is because when drones are used to replace something that human hands can do, there becomes and ethical concern with unions and labor departments in many companies. We have already seen outright replacement of the human workforce with car manufacturing or manufacturing in general due to speed and accuracy.
~Chris