On February 9 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issues its position on Remote ID, the bottom line excerpt is below. It should be noted that while they're ok with it they are not wild about the concept of "Session ID" feature that would allow an operator to have their identity blocked for a specific flight.
"... after receiving over 50,000 public comments (including from the ACLU), the FAA in its final rule dispensed with the internet connection requirement and confined its rules to requiring an alternate technology: broadcast transponders that would broadcast their unique ID numbers locally to anyone within range. We think this is good; the broadcast Remote ID should be sufficient to achieve both the security goal of allowing facilities to identify and deter illegal or hostile drone flights and the privacy goal of empowering individuals to know what aerial cameras may be recording them... the FAA is doing a good job in building an infrastructure that will give us the ability to know what “eyes in the sky” are observing our streets, communities, and cities. While details still need to be worked out, the agency’s goal seems to be a system in which anyone can see the “license plate” of nearby drones on their cell phones."
"... after receiving over 50,000 public comments (including from the ACLU), the FAA in its final rule dispensed with the internet connection requirement and confined its rules to requiring an alternate technology: broadcast transponders that would broadcast their unique ID numbers locally to anyone within range. We think this is good; the broadcast Remote ID should be sufficient to achieve both the security goal of allowing facilities to identify and deter illegal or hostile drone flights and the privacy goal of empowering individuals to know what aerial cameras may be recording them... the FAA is doing a good job in building an infrastructure that will give us the ability to know what “eyes in the sky” are observing our streets, communities, and cities. While details still need to be worked out, the agency’s goal seems to be a system in which anyone can see the “license plate” of nearby drones on their cell phones."
New Government Tracking System Paves the Way for Expanded Role of Drones | ACLU
The FAA's new drone tracking regulations represent a major step in expanding the prevalence of drones in American life.
www.aclu.org
