Have you ever been spied on in your own home by a drone? If the laws to protect your privacy are not put in place, that could happen in the near future. That might be a scary thought, but domestic drones also have potential uses that could make our lives better. There are some serious concerns, but before trying to ban drones we should consider both the positive and the negative effects they would have.
Drones could benefit our society in many ways. One of the ways they could improve our lives is by helping to reduce crime. Law enforcement agencies would like to use them as soon as possible. Recently SF Gate reported that the Alameda County sheriff’s office tried to get approval to buy a drone. The sheriff’s department said that they would use the drones for “...search and rescue missions or in situations with a barricaded armed suspect.” Many law enforcement agencies can not afford to have a helicopter and an inexpensive drone could provide a good substitute. Tracking dangerous criminals would also be possible. Many other positive uses of drones have been proposed by not only the government , but by private companies. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos predicted in the Star Tribune “...that his company would soon deploy fleets of tiny automated helicopters to drop Christmas packages on doorsteps.” Some other possible uses would be crop dusting, spotting forest fires, analyzing pipelines, predicting weather conditions, providing instant traffic reports, delivering medication to remote areas in need and tracking endangered wildlife. These are just some of the great ways drones could help us in our current way of life. Using drones in these ways could also make our society more efficient by getting rid of many middle men that currently are being used such as postal delivery men. Amazon and other corporations have already started testing drones to deliver their packages straight to people homes in a more timely fashion. Having drones around would definitely have some benefits.
But drones also have their share of drawbacks. The issue of people’s privacy is the biggest concern. Drones are a great tool for spying on people; The Guardian points out, “...the tiny size of surveillance drones enables them to reach places that helicopters obviously cannot, and to do so without detection.” (TheGuardian.com) They have been used for that purpose for many years in places like Afghanistan. People are afraid of drones becoming not only a tool for the government to spy on them, but also their neighbors. Many drones are small enough to fly into your backyard and look through the windows while the person controlling the drone is watching the whole thing happen on his television screen back at his house. Others with no concern for people’s privacy like the paparazzi could use drones to track celebrities twenty four hours a day. Drones could give the government and other citizens the ability to spy on you any time they want to.
Another benefit of drones is that the production and use of drones could benefit the economy by providing new jobs and making our private companies more productive. Drones could bring in as much as $82 billion to the economy by 2025 (Star Tribune). Another pro is that drone production could create as many as 100,000 jobs in the next ten years predicted the Star Tribune. And any company that uses helicopters of planes in the course of their business, like farmers and delivery companies, could use much cheaper drones instead. Drones would provide a boost to our economy. THE BUSH
Once again nothing is perfect, and drones do have some drawbacks other than just privacy. Drones could be used by criminals to perform illegal acts. Criminals could use them for things such as smuggling drugs, dropping bombs, crashing into buildings, shooting guns, smashing into passenger planes, and acting as peeping toms. They could also be dangerous if the people flying them are not very good pilots. They could accidentally crash into other aircraft, cars and people just walking down the street. Drones could potentially be dangerous if not used properly.All in all, drones have the potential to be a great thing for our society. We just need to make sure that laws are in place to protect citizens from having their privacy invaded and to keep them out of the hands of criminals and other people that would use them irresponsibly. I think that eventually they will become part of our everyday life and that we will benefit from them in many ways.