The government should issue “strong, enforceable rules—...

The government should issue “strong, enforceable rules -- not voluntary best practices -- that protect the privacy rights of American citizens” from commercial drone use, said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., in a letter Thursday to President Barack Obama (http://1.usa.gov/1ny613b). Politico reported Thursday the White House was planning to issue an executive order telling the NTIA to develop a multistakeholder privacy code of conduct for commercial drone use (http://politi.co/1jWfIJq). The NTIA has overseen the creation of a voluntary mobile privacy code of conduct and is now facilitating the creation of a facial recognition technology code of conduct (CD July 25 p14). Originally, it was thought that privacy issues in the deployment of small commercial drones would fall under the Federal Aviation Administration’s jurisdiction in a rulemaking due this fall (CD July 23 p13). “We believe only strong, enforceable rules will force potentially bad actors to respect privacy,” said the letter. Drone privacy rules should require commercial drone operators to disclose their data collection, sharing, use and deletion plans, the duo said. Law enforcement should also be required to obtain a warrant before using drones, and a public website should list all drone flight plans, said the lawmakers. The recommendations are mostly in line with corresponding House and Senate bills, the Drone Aircraft Privacy and Transparency Act (HR-2868 and S-1639) (http://1.usa.gov/1lDFv4k). The White House had no comment.