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Robert Winner

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Use of drones to patrol US skies

There is talk of allowing the military to use drones to patrol over US skies.

I can think of some good uses of drones patrols. Search and rescue, boarder patrol, fleeing criminals, etc ..

However, as has been proven time and again the resource is vulnerable to misuse and abuse by authorities.

Does the use of drones on citizens scare you or do you support the use.

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    Fred Lanisake

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    Jul 14 2012: The video feeds from military drones are supposedly sent unencrypted, so that any commander with an OSVRT (a video receiving device used by the Army) can read nearby drones without the need to generate keys. There is also a control connection from the operator to the bird, and a direct connection to the satellites for GPS.

    So in theory I suppose you could UHF scan for the video feed, and knowing that the control frequency is close spray a range with powerful enough garbage and kill the connection to the operator. The bird then goes into autopilot mode, which would probably either be set to "autoland" (imagine landing predator planes in your backyard) or "return to waypoint", which would lead you back to the base if you were interested.

    That's probably what the Iranians did. The drone was clearly being operated from outside Iranian airspace. I'd have to guess it wouldn't be a difficult signal for them to overpower. So... what appears to be a powerful metal beast actually has a delicate thread you could probably severe if you were a brave enough chap.
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    dean crawford

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    Jul 13 2012: Scaries the living shit out of me.

  • Barry Palmer 50+

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    Jun 21 2012: Have you seen the Photosynth talk

    http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosynth.html

    Drones will be only one part of the big picture. Technology will soon enable the recording of a three dimensional model of the real world and everyone in it. The government will know where everyone is at all times. This will be the end of geographical privacy. I should say that I hate this idea; that it violates my human rights and that we should all fight it. But personally, I would be willing to give up this type of privacy because it would mean the end of most forms of crime, particularly violent crime. A girl born in the USA today has a one in four chance of being raped during her life time. That is not acceptable.

    Does it scare me that the government will have this information? Very much.
    Should we stop it? Probably.
    Will we stop it? Even if we give it our best efforts, I don't think so. The government will do this; so it would be better to do it publicly and be able to use the evidence in court rather than have the information classified and accessible only to homeland security.

    Just my opinion. Wish it could be more upbeat.
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    Kevin Jacobson

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    Jun 20 2012: Well, needless to say, that would re-define that old feeling of being watched. But, as long as these drones were only used for the good of the general populace, then I would be fine.
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    R H 20+

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    Jun 19 2012: A great social and ethical question. Just like 'illegal search and seizure', we will probably have 'illegal viewing and data gathering' with the use of drones to watch homeland security. I supported President Reagan's 'Star Wars' defence system because I thought (from what I could tell) it was very strategically and cost effective. But that got killed in congress - again, as far as I know. Drones would be mult-faceted in deployment, could not just provide for internal issues but external as well, have an extremely wide range, and probably be very effective. Probably won't go anywhere either.
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