The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156432   Message #3688980
Posted By: Don Firth
22-Feb-15 - 05:22 PM
Thread Name: BS: acceptable solution to personal drones.
Subject: RE: BS: acceptable solution to personal drones.
I can't say I'm too concerned about personal drones. If someone gets their jollies by watching me go to and from the grocery store or drug store, or wants to track me if I go for a walk in the nearby park, well, it's their time they are wasting. And when at home, I can frustrate the efforts of any "peeping Tom" by simply altering the angle of the Venetian blinds. Blocks views of anything except at a specific angle and still lets the light in.

If someone does succeed in spying on me while I'm at home, they'll generally see me pecking away at the computer, or reading a book, or practicing on the guitar, or watching television. As a spectator sport, methinks that would probably have pretty limited appeal.

One countermeasure to small personal drones, if you can get close enough, would be an aerosol can of Silly String. Or, for that matter, a butterfly net. Some personal drones are pretty darned expensive, and causing one to crash in a tangle of Silly String, or capturing it and whacking it with a hammer, could hit the peeping Tom in the pocket book. Especially if it were to happen repeatedly.

So far, they seem to be used mostly by adolescent geeks (of all ages) spying on young women sunbathing topless in their back yards. I wonder if it ever occurred to said geeks that there are legal implications to that kind of activity.

Also—personal drone activity in populous areas is regulated by the Civil Aeronautics Board in the United States. I imagine there are similar regulations in the U. K. and Europe in general.

Don (peek-a-boo, I see you!) Firth