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The US Considers A Remote Identification System For Drones (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Engadget:
The FAA is still trying to figure out the best way to regulate drones to ensure safety. Last week, a committee tasked with tackling the issue met for the first time, including representatives from Amazon, Ford and NYPD. One of the items discussed was a better way to identify registered drones from the ground since any ID numbers are pretty much invisible while the UAV is airborne...
As Recode notes, Congress is working to restore mandatory registration which would be key to tying a drone to its owner for the purposes of any remote identification... Back in March, [drone manufacturer] DJI proposed what it calls an "electronic identification framework" for all drones that would give authorities in the U.S. information about the owner when necessary. That proposal includes using the radio tech DJI says is already on most drones to transmit details like location and registration number. EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) made a similar recommendation back in January 2016... [T]he FAA committee is scheduled to meet again on July 18th. Any formal recommendations are currently due to the agency by September 30th.
As Recode notes, Congress is working to restore mandatory registration which would be key to tying a drone to its owner for the purposes of any remote identification... Back in March, [drone manufacturer] DJI proposed what it calls an "electronic identification framework" for all drones that would give authorities in the U.S. information about the owner when necessary. That proposal includes using the radio tech DJI says is already on most drones to transmit details like location and registration number. EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) made a similar recommendation back in January 2016... [T]he FAA committee is scheduled to meet again on July 18th. Any formal recommendations are currently due to the agency by September 30th.
Agenda 21 mumble mumble.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
People who seek to do harm or make trouble will just mod their drone so it doesn't squawk anything. This is another feel-good regulation that mostly serves to inconvenience the type of people who are going to follow the rules anyway.
Full-size manned and unmanned aircraft are required to have ADS-B transmitters. These drones already have the required GPS receivers so it seems to me like this would be an ideal time to push for miniturization of the technology to use on drones.
Bonus: ADS-B will make drones visible to all other aircraft in the vicinity.
Progressive authoritarians masquerading as champions of privacy again it seems.
yeah, just read this shit!
EPIC is involved with wide range of civil liberties, consumer protection, and human rights issues. EPIC has pursued several successful consumer privacy complaints with the US Federal Trade Commission, concerning Snapchat (faulty privacy technology), WhatsApp (privacy policy after acquisition by Facebook), Facebook (changes in user privacy settings), Google (roll-out of Google Buzz), Microsoft (Hailstorm log-in), and Choicepoint (sale of personal information to identity thieves). EPIC has also prevailed in significant Freedom of Information Act cases against the CIA, the DHS, the Dept. of Education, the FBI, the NSA, the ODNI, and the TSA. EPIC has also filed many "friend of the court" briefs on law and technology, including Riley v. California (U.S. 2014) (concerning cell phone privacy), and litigated important privacy cases, including EPIC v. DHS (D.C. Cir. 2011), which led to the removal of the x-ray body scanners in US airports, and EPIC v. NSA (D.C. Cir. 2014), which led to the release of the NSA's formerly secret cybersecurity authority. EPIC also challenged the NSA's domestic surveillance program in a petition to the US Supreme Court. In re EPIC, (U.S. 2013) after the release of the "Verizon Order" in June 2013. One of EPIC's current cases concerns the obligation of the Federal Aviation Administration to establish privacy regulations prior to the deployment of commercial drones in the United States.
totally authoritarians!
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Yet, they have no problems advocating that people be forced to put wireless transmitters on their drones. That's the problem with organizations like that: what they do is mostly about self-aggrandizement and preaching to the choir, not principles.
Sorry, I don't believe anything they have done has made my life more private or more secure. I think they are irrelevant.
And what's next? Since criminals use automobiles, and the cops "need" to know who's driving any given car in the vicinity of a crime, will the DoT also require an ID transmitter in every car?
The FCC found out that requiring every CB operator in the country to have a "license" was a huge burden on them, and served no functional purpose, and finally gave it up as a bad job. I suspect the millions of quadcopters and hexcopters (do we have octocopters yet?) will be the same. Perhaps they should stop conflating hobby and small-business quadcopters with actual _drones_, and they'd stop thinking both types of object need to be licensed and controlled in the same way and for the same reasons.
The FCC finds lots of things too burdensome yet still regulates them, that way, if they want to put you away, they can.
Do you have any imported electronics without an FCC certification? Perhaps from Amazon or Newegg (early RPi or RPi clones) - illegal or a cheap USB WiFi adapter - illegal.
Ever tried to get anything FCC certified? It's 10k and several months for 1 round of testing thus almost nobody does it for low volume items.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
You're welcome to worship some self-righteous academic if you like. I think you're finding increasingly the rest of the country doesn't care about these people or their positions.
About half of the traffic on roads is a delivery of documents and small parcels, which could be easily automated by drones. Certainly, reducing traffic is not what some lobbies want.
I think this is the underwater reason of these prohibitive measures.
https://www.google.com/patents...
The tag is an almost-passive device with tiny power consumption. It can be read by a device with a directional antenna mounted on a pair of binoculars, for example.
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
and you'd have half the country freaking the heck out. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader whether that's a good thing or not.
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How are they going to enforce custom made home built drones to be identified?
Well, if past patterns hold true and they do decide to go all-in on registration/tracking, there's already a convenient blueprint for the politicians to follow.
Welcome to; "The War On (unregistered/untrackable) Drones(TM)"
"Alright, kid! Let's see registration papers for that drone and show me some picture I.D.!"
"But Sir, I'm only 9 years old!?"
"Sure, just an innocent young radical-in-training out for a stroll with an unregistered spy drone! Alright, on the ground, face-down...and don't make any sudden moves, my partner has you covered with his M4 carbine!"
"Mommy!!"
[BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG]...[BANGBANG]
After a couple of "tragic incidents", what parent would allow their child to play with a drone? How many adults would want to fly drones as a hobby?
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
The vast majority of drones in the air right now are home built. DJI and Parrot are actually expensive toys that are in the minority here.
Citation required. I believe it is exactly the opposite. Literally millions of off-the-shelf drones from DJI and their small handful of competitors, and a rapidly dwindling number of home/custom-built machines regularly in any kind of use. The complete integration and ease of use in products like DJI's make that a no-brainer for the millions of people who are flying around for fun. Most pro photographers/videographers don't have the time to build, tweak, and maintain a custom rig - they just need a camera in the air and for it all to work: enter DJI and almost every price point.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Just stop.
And what's next? Since criminals use automobiles, and the cops "need" to know who's driving any given car in the vicinity of a crime, will the DoT also require an ID transmitter in every car?
Good point, but we're already there. License plate readers are becoming ubiquitous, so that with a simple database query a longitudinal history of your car's whereabouts can easily be determined long after the fact. The FBI is flying planes over US cities, for who-knows-what reasons, but possibly recording traffic so that any particular vehicle of interest can be traced back to where it came from.
Hey, Windows users, there is no such thing as "forward" slash, there is only slash and backslash.
They have market dominance but they also kowtow to government paranoia. They force firmware updates that bork your copter even if you are legally allowed to do stuff they don't want you to.