Government and industry will need to overcome significant challenges, including those related to privacy and security, before commercial drone aircraft can be safely introduced in U.S. airspace, the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday as it released a road map for the integration of drones into domestic skies.
The road map (download PDF) addresses a list of policies, regulations, technologies and procedures that need to fall into place for the FAA to start issuing licenses to commercial drone operators in large numbers. It establishes requirements that drone operators and others in the industry have to meet in order to obtain a commercial operator's license for drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx described the road map "as an important step forward that will help stakeholders understand the operational goals and safety issues we need to consider when planning for the future of our airspace."
The Federal Aviation Administration Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, signed into law by President Barack Obama last year, requires the FAA to implement rules and procedures for licensing drone use by government agencies, commercial entities, hobbyists and others.
Over the next few years, thousands of unmanned aerial vehicles of varying sizes and capabilities are expected to be in use over the U.S., doing everything from fugitive tracking to rail surveillance, traffic management, crop monitoring, land management, news reporting and filmmaking.
Privacy and civil rights groups have expressed alarm over the privacy implications of widespread drone use -- especially by government and law enforcement agencies. They argue that drones equipped with high-tech cameras and listening devices would be able to conduct unprecedented and persistent surveillance of civilians. Concerns have also been raised about air safety risks arising from the presence of thousands of drones in the skies.
Drone advocates have downplayed such concerns and maintain that the potential benefits of the technology far outweigh the risks.
Thursday's road map highlights some of the challenges that need to be navigated before either side has a chance to find out the impact large-scale use of commercial drones will have in the U.S.
Among those issues are standards for ensuring that unmanned aircraft are capable of sensing and avoiding other aircraft near them and policies and procedures for operators of drone aircraft to communicate with and respond to air traffic controllers.
Integrating public and civilian drones into domestic airspace also carries security risks that need to be addressed through measures like vetting and training of drone operators and the adoption of controls for ensuring that drone aircraft cannot be hacked remotely.
The road map touches upon the need for strong privacy polices, controls and standards, but it offers few specifics on what controls are needed to address concerns raised by privacy advocates. The only area where the road map delves into privacy issues in some detail involves a UAV test site program being implemented by the FAA to better understand some of the issues that could crop up with widespread use of commercial drones.
Under the program, the FAA will establish six test sites in the U.S. that will be operated by state-level organizations. The operators of the test sites will be required to establish written privacy policies for data use and retention, with guidelines for what data can be collected and shared and what data must be destroyed.
Michael Toscano, president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) welcomed the FAA road map. "Expansion of [drone] technology will create more than 100,000 jobs and generate more than $82 billion in economic impact in the first decade following the integration" of drones into domestic airspace, he said in comments via email.
The FAA's acknowledgment of the privacy concerns and its requirements for the test sites are important, Toscano said. "In requiring test sites to have a written plan for data use and retention, the FAA appropriately focuses on the real issue when it comes to privacy -- the use, storage and sharing of data, or whether data collected must be deleted," he said.
Toscano said he was encouraged by the agency's focus on how data is collected and used, rather than on drone technology itself. "[Drones] are one of many platforms that could be used for collecting data," he said. "Privacy policies should focus on how data is collected and used, as opposed to focusing on the specific platform that is doing the collecting."
Jaikumar Vijayan covers data security and privacy issues, financial services security and e-voting for Computerworld. Follow Jaikumar on Twitter at @jaivijayan, or subscribe to Jaikumar's RSS feed . His email address is jvijayan@computerworld.com.
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