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FAA strikes effective balance with new Unmanned Aircraft Systems privacy policy

The Federal Aviation Administration has announced privacy requirements for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) that will protect civil liberties while allowing UAS technology to develop. The FAA will also incorporate public feedback as it builds its regulatory approach through 2015.

In unveiling a path-breaking roadmap for integrating Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into America’s skies, Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Michael Huerta also offered privacy requirements that will allow consumer protections while affording UAS technology the opportunity to develop and improve.

Mr. Huerta offered both elements of the coming federal UAS policy at a a recent event sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association in Washington. (Here’s a story with details of the announcement.)

“The approach that I saw articulated today in this privacy pledge by the FAA, the notion of requiring operators to think through and then articulate a written privacy policy, seems to me to effectively balance the privacy interests of individuals against the societal interests of not hamstringing a new technology and allowing a new technology to develop for all of us,” said Jonathan Hart, a privacy attorney with Dow Lohnes who also spoke at the event.

The FAA’s privacy policy requires UAS operators at six soon-to-be-released test sites to comply with all local, state, and federal laws concerning privacy and civil liberties and provide a written plan for how such operators will use and maintain any test data. The FAA will evaluate these policies alongside public feedback as it builds out its regulatory approach to UAS through 2015.

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