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Comment by yellow_lead | Hacker News Reader

Seems like this is the new norm and while I do feel the skies should be free to an extent I know this would concern me if it were happening over my head.

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No reason to be concerned as long as local laws are being followed, which it sounds like is the case. Below 400ft above ground is fair game for everyone, as normal air traffic does not fly that low, making it perfectly safe.

>No reason to be concerned as long as local laws are being followed

Well unless you care about privacy, the potential for stuff crashing on you/your property, and/or noise pollution.

I wonder about that given recent news ( https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2019/12/20/baltim... ).

Myabe law enforcement feels left out of the game.

Requiring people to explain their lawful activity in the name of privacy is something of a contradiction.

How does that scan? Other people’s privacy should supersede your public behavior.

Perhaps I'm wrong to frame it as a privacy issue, but I have a large problem with allowing people to be harassed for lawful actions. If the law says I can do something, and I do it, I shouldn't be required to explain why I did it.

I have no problem with people not wanting drones flying over their properties, and I have no problem with a collective decision that people's privacy should supersede the right to fly drones in public airspace (indeed, I'd probably agree with it). But that should be enforced by a change in law, not by an demand that someone justify their supposedly legal actions.

Just out of curiosity, why would it concern you? I live in a semi-rural tourism-heavy town and get a fair few drones in the vicinity of my house due to a major tourist site nearby, and it never really bothers me unless they fly low enough for the sound to get annoying.

They might be using cameras on my home or family. They might be testing some kind of radar or other tech that has a health impact. They might be a competitor assessing my crops. More broadly their very presence is a trespass on my right to live and be left alone on my own property.

Radar at legal power levels does not have a health impact.

Even so a property owner should have a right to decide whether it is used on his property

I totally agree. Infact the FAA owes me money if they allowed drones below 400ft. This is a taking of my property. I own up to 400 feet. If these drones want to follow the roads that is fine with me. Don't tread on my private property.

The article is just a grid pattern nearby, but I was imagining something like a drone hovering over your place indefinitely. I'm uncomfortable with the use of high precision cameras, especially infrared or heat cameras pointed at my house. It's technically legal， sure, but knowing when I leave and return, where I am in the house, etc. I could just imagine it feeling like an invasion of privacy. Also, imagine a stalker using one of these.

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