President Obama may order drone privacy guidelines

Between firework shows and people being harassed for simply flying them around, drones are a hot-button topic of late. The FAA is looking to rule on where drones should and shouldn't fly, but that's not the whole story. President Obama will reportedly be making a decision on privacy laws as they relate to drones.

The President is expected to draft an executive order to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to outline rules regarding consumer privacy and drones. Specifically, the President wants them to include any unmanned aircraft — remote controlled drone or not.

The use of drones is typically for recreation, but they've increasingly been looked to as business solutions. Some explorers use them to get to places they've not been able to reach, and a drone photography contest showed some of the upside to drones — but also the potential security risk.

Amazon is one notable company that wants to use drones to deliver their goods. While that might seem pretty amazing to consumers, it will undoubtedly have many concerned for their privacy — depending on what the drone's capabilities are. It's likely any unmanned craft would have cameras onboard in case something nefarious happened to the equipment, but that could be a sticking point the government would like to avoid. As drones scale, so will the laws governing their use, and now, privacy.

Source: Politico