Kevin Bankston speaks at DARC in the session “Expectations and Guarantees: Privacy vs the First Amendment”

The public has voiced clear concern about the coming integration of civilian drones into domestic skies. Anxiety over the potential for surveillance and privacy abuses is well-founded: anyone can purchase a drone outfitted with an HD camera at the mall for $299, or assemble exponentially more capable drones themselves for less than $1000. And there’s no comprehensive legal framework regulating what individuals can do with their personal drones. However, drones are a neutral technology, with a number of benefits for information gathering, and the First Amendment provides at least some justification for allowing surveillance-equipped drones to proliferate. This roundtable convenes privacy experts, First Amendment advocates, technologists, and others to explore the interaction between free speech and privacy as they pertain to drone use.