op/ed

Drones are coming home to roost.

June 16, 2014. ¶ In February of 2012 Congress told the Federal Aviation Administration (faa) to open the national airspace to drone traffic by September of 2015. In 2013 the faa released the “Civil UAS Roadmap:” a plan to pave the skyways by clearing the regulations that have thus far kept government and private domestic drones at bay (for the most part) and creating a new regulatory infrastructure to welcome drones home.

Privacy means more than not being watched for illegal activity. Privacy—the secret ballot—is the foundation of democracy. Surveillance undermines the secret ballot because when the government knows what you read, who you associate with, and what you talk about, it knows how you vote. And now, if the government doesn’t like how you vote—or what you read, write, or talk about for that matter—they can send the military to follow you around and monitor everything you do with a flying robot.

They’ll have the rights to spy on you anywhere.

Consider the Fourth Amendment out the window. With the approval from the Secretary of Defense, the Air Force will have the right to fly surveillance drones to collect information on targeted civilians without warrant. The Air Force may keep the data on record up to 90 days before it determines whether to retain the material.

Customs and Border Protection is already contemplating weaponizing its drones. Though not yet approved, drones outfitted with rubber bullets are a real possibility. By 2015, protests could be controlled by armed police and federal drones.

It doesn’t matter if you have nothing to hide. This is really, really not good for democracy. This is the military policing us; that’s called martial law.

By 2020, the faa estimates that 30,000 drones owned by the military, police departments, local governments, and corporations will occupy American skies. Consider that drones can film you in detail from two miles up, intercept your texts out of thin air, slurp up data from your computer through your Wi-Fi network, and detect human breathing. The nsa will no longer need to get its data from your service provider. 30,000 drones will mean blanket surveillance.