Tech
Sign up with NoFlyZone to stop (some) drones from flying over your house
IMAGE: FLICKR, DAVID RODRIGUEZ MARTIN
For people worried about how drones might affect their privacy, a website has mustered up a novel way to tackle the problem.
NoFlyZone allows users to enter their home address to have it listed as a drone no-fly zone. A handful of — but by no means all — drone manufacturers have agreed to participate in the website's no-fly database.
As NoFlyZone's website puts it:
Many people are concerned about their privacy and safety. NoFlyZone.org offers these people a method to control the airspace above their property and to prevent drones from flying over. Our service physically prevents drones from flying over opted-out property by including areas in the drone's no-fly database
In other words, the coordinates of your property are logged into a database that's synced up with the drones, so they, in a sense, "know" not to fly over the property. Still, NoFlyZone makes no guarantees. The list of participating drone manufacturers is not exhaustive, and — as the database will be included in firmware updates — it's unclear how frequently drones will be updated. There will also likely be malfunctions that allow drones to veer into no-fly areas.
Everyone from lawmakers to your reclusive neighbor might find that drones are a very real threat to privacy, a big reason being:
a ton of drones — readily available to the public — are equipped with camerasa ton of drones — readily available to the public — are equipped with cameras. This is meant to encourage drone manufacturers to get out ahead of privacy concerns and begin self-regulation.
NoFlyZone's participating drone manufacturers include DroneDeploy, Ehang (maker of the Ghost-Drone), HEXO+ and YUNEEC. That, of course, leaves out drones from tech giants like Google and Amazon, as well as popular consumer drone makers, like Parrot or DJI. Drone manufacturers interested in NoFlyZone can sign up here.
BONUS: An illustrated history of drones
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