Many Watching NTIA Drone Multistakeholder Privacy Process

The Federal Aviation Administration has said it won't issue privacy rules and is focused on drone safety, and a rulemaking is expected to wrap up next year or in 2017, panelists noted. "The FAA has disclaimed responsibility for regulating privacy in this space," said NTIA Director-Privacy Initiatives John Verdi, who said all his remarks were only on his behalf. The FAA proposed in February to amend rules to allow operation of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) (see 1502160003).

As "a safety agency, we do not have the expertise to regulate privacy, and we fully support the presidential memo assigning NTIA" to convene stakeholders to discuss privacy, an FAA spokesman said Thursday. "The FAA plans to finish its part of the rulemaking by the end of this calendar year," and it must go through its parent agency, the Department of Transportation, and the Office of Management and Budget, he said.

On Capitol Hill, there may be a "gap filler until the rule is handed down by the FAA," said Small UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) Coalition Executive Director Michael Drobac. Verdi said "there is not a live bill in Congress right now that is going to get out of committee and that is going to go to the floor and pass the House that is going to regulate commercial operations from a privacy perspective." So NTIA is where substantial progress from a federal perspective on privacy may occur, if accord can be worked out between privacy advocates and industry, speakers said. Some like Center for Democracy and Technology Senior Counsel Harley Geiger said they hope the media industry will agree to a code of conduct to protect consumers' privacy. "You will be defined, I think, by the worst of you," he said of the sector.

Advocates and industry acknowledge that in using drones, media organizations should take steps to protect people's privacy, which some panelists said gives them optimism that a deal can be reached through the NTIA discussion. "I think companies get this," Geiger said of privacy concerns. "So far, the folks that I talk to are largely saying positive things. But we’ll see how it works." NTIA's parent, the Commerce Department, has "been very open minded" about drone technology "to have some reasonable" privacy measures, said Drobac, who said his coalition includes Amazon, Google, flying and camera stabilization systems developer DJI and others making UAVs and hardware and software for drones for civilian use. "Privacy is a major issue which we all need to get behind."

The drone industry sees privacy as important, though safety is even more important and the concepts go together, Drobac said. "This case I would say is unique in that I think companies are genuinely on the side of generally moving forward with some really forward-thinking privacy measures that are taking into account what technologies are available." Industry "is going to be on the side of putting in very reasonable and productive privacy kind of guardrails," Drobac said. He said to beware of anti-drone "hysteria" and that media companies should use drones to gather news even though it's not permissible under FAA rules if it's deemed a business use. "I would ask for forgiveness -- I would not ask for permission," he said.

FAA and News Media

There's an FAA "anomaly" that hobbyists can use unlicensed drones and sell footage to a news organization but only if the person didn't fly the drone with the purpose of selling it, said Davis Wright First Amendment lawyer Bob Corn-Revere, who represents media companies interested in using drones. "Commercial news organizations can’t do the same thing."

Media can use drones, but in different ways, responded the FAA spokesman. Anyone can apply for an FAA Modernization and Reform Act Section 333 exemption for commercial drone use, while Fox is using an exemption holder for unmanned coverage of the U.S. Open, the spokesman said. That network had no immediate comment Thursday. Time Warner's CNN has a cooperative research agreement with the FAA on developing newsgathering drone technology, while the cable network is also part of another agency initiative to test such newsgathering, the spokesman said. CNN had no immediate comment.

Drones have many news-media applications, with much interest in the technology, said Corn-Revere, Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Executive Director Mike Cavender and others. "The capabilities are amazing," said Corn-Revere, who showed news and other videos taken from drones. "Rather than a recognition of the capabilities, the policy discussion has focused on how do we put this back into a box, before it spreads." RTDNA members, which include radio and TV stations and digital operations, "across the board are looking to ultimately get these UAS in flight because of the tremendous opportunities they offer in terms of newsgathering," Cavender said: Managing the privacy concerns, if not easily done, certainly is "well within the purview of the privacy concerns our members deal with every day, with other technologies." Drones are "just another newsgathering technology, just one that hasn’t been utilized yet," he said.

NTIA's Verdi said he disagrees "that Washington’s first instinct in this area is to put it back in the box." The "first thing" in President Barack Obama's February memo on drone privacy "acknowledges the benefits of UAS," and 90 to 95 percent of the document "addresses government use of this technology," Verdi said. He said the memo "directed NTIA to begin a voluntary process, not a rulemaking, to bring industry and others together to craft best practices that will build trust in this technology." In March, NTIA began its drone privacy undertaking (see 1503040035). Obama could have proposed legislation or regulation, "but he didn't do it," Verdi said. "I can make no guarantee that privacy advocates aren't going to walk out" of, or even show up for, drone multistakeholder privacy talks, he said when asked whether this dialogue could go the way of the facial recognition discussion-- where advocates withdrew. "I've heard from advocates and industry that they believe there is common ground" on drones, he said. It's "up to the group to come together as they did in the mobile app process, which was very successful," Verdi said of NTIA's mobile app code of conduct (see report in the July 29, 2013, issue).