DRONES AND PRIVACY
The rules for regulating their use are numerous and stringent, but users often ignore them or pretend to ignore them, with all the necessary risks for data protection.
PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL USE OF DRONES
Model aircraft are drones used for recreational purposes, while remotely piloted aircraft are used for professional purposes. The same drone can be considered a model aircraft or aircraft depending on the use and, consequently, very different obligations and behaviors result.
With a recreational model aircraft it is possible to fly only outside inhabited areas, areas considered “non-critical”. With a professional aircraft, however, it is possible to fly over critical areas (cities). To date, ENAC has issued 5,500 authorizations for remote-controlled vehicles, of which 5 thousand for non-critical areas and 500 for critical areas. Drones under 300 grams in weight with propeller protection and speeds below 60 kilometers per hour can circulate in critical areas without authorization.
Source : Riccardo Delise, ENAC program manager
DRONES AND DATA PROTECTION
Privacy must be carefully considered when the drone is equipped with devices capable of taking photos or making videos.
If it is possible to identify the drone pilot, you can ask him for information on how he intends to use the footage and possibly refuse consent to the processing of the data collected, especially if forms of dissemination of the images are provided. And if you believe you have been victims of violations of your privacy, you can contact the Guarantor for the protection of personal data or, alternatively, the judicial authority.
« Without prejudice to the uses for journalistic purposes – specifies Giuseppe Busia, general secretary of the Guarantor of privacy – if you want to spread the filming done with the drone you need the consent of the filmed subjects. When it is difficult to gather consent, the subjects must be unrecognizable or because they are taken from afar or with blurred faces ».
Source : Riccardo Delise, ENAC program manager
So you have to remember what should NOT be done when using a drone:
- filming on the private property of others (e.g. home, garden ..)
- shooting and dissemination of images that contain personal data such as car plates, home addresses, etc.
- publication on the web of shots taken in a public place such as beaches, roads or parks without having collected the consent of the subjects shot
- voluntarily capture other people’s conversations (accidentally recorded conversation fragments can only be used if they do not make the context recognizable)
INDICATIONS OF THE PRIVACY GUARANTOR
Given the exponential increase in the use of these drones, the Privacy Guarantor has tried to regulate the matter through a simple but effective infographic entitled “Use-of-drones-Infographic- Guarantor “.
This infographic collects valuable advice to respect the basic principles of the legislation on the processing of personal data, as well as some hints to the rules provided by ENAC for drone piloting.
According to the provisions of the European Regulation on the protection of personal data, drones, like all electronic devices, must respect the principles of privacy by design and privacy by default: i.e. all those technical-organizational measures aimed at ensure that the processing of data is limited only to those necessary to achieve the purposes.
