Privacy Issues with Drones

Joanna visits with Kevin Lyons, Monroe County Agent for Agriculture & Natural Resources
to talk about privacy issues with drones.

Common Law: Landowner owns from the center of the earth to the heavens above. A landowner's property interest in land extends to the airspace directly over the property, to the extent that the airspace can be used to benefit the underlying land. Privacy: Many of the proposed (and passed) state laws focus on privacy. They typically work to make the capture of images with a UAS a crime under certain circumstances. It is an offense to use an unmanned aircraft to capture an image of an individual or privately owned real property with the intent to conduct surveillance on the individual or property. Nuisance – an unreasonable interference with another’s use and enjoyment of their property. Trespass - there must be substantial interference with the use and enjoyment of the underlying land, rather than reasonable interference. Flights taking place in the navigable airspace cannot constitute trespass. Anything under 50 feet is trespass, and from 50 to 500 feet depends on the facts and circumstances. Drones are considered aircraft by the FAA. It is a felony to willfully set fire to, damage, destroys, disables, or wrecks any aircraft Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS): “Aircraft” that are used or intended to be used for flight in the air with no onboard pilot.

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Warren County Cooperative Extension Service
https://www.warrencountyextension.com
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https://warrencountyagriculture.com
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