UAV RAISES CONCERN ABOUT SAFETY

It is the Orwellian era. Although some thirty years have passed since the gloomy scenario portrayed by George Orwell in 1984, the mushrooming presence of surveillance cameras and security procedures have invaded our privacy to an extent never foreseen by the author. With the increase in security threats due to religious and ethnic terrorism, we have all but acquiesced ourselves to this privacy invasion with mute protests.

A new entrant in the surveillance area is the UAVs. After having been successfully deployed over the mountains of Afghanistan to counter the Al Qaeda threat, the US government is mulling over the feasibility and acceptability of a programme that would allow unmanned aircraft to fly beside commercial planes in the US airspace.

As of now, more than 50 agencies have applied to the FAA for permission to deploy unmanned aircraft across the United States airspace. The entities include police departments, universities and other “non-military organisations”.

 The goal of this programme by Federal agencies is to improve security and assess the scope of natural disasters. Lawmakers in the US are apprehensive that in addition to the benefits, there is also potential for drone technology to enable invasive and pervasive surveillance without adequate privacy protections.

Your comments and views on the subject are welcome.