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I’ll never understand people who use drones like this, even ignoring the obvious moral and ethical issues of voyeurism they’re loud and obnoxious at the altitud

I’ll never understand people who use drones like this, even ignoring the obvious moral and ethical issues of voyeurism they’re loud and obnoxious at the altitudes you would need to go peeping through windows. Every time I try and assuage fears laypeople have about drones and privacy there’s a story or anecdote about some dumbass who does stuff like this anyway...

bluescrn 6y ago
If you really want to spy on somebody, you don’t use a noisy buzzing drone right outside a window, or hovering in an otherwise empty sky. Even something as crude as a smartphone on a stick could be more covert. Surprised that even tech enthusiasts are often so fearful of drones while not worried about the hundreds of cameras already filming their activities in most public places.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  It's not about the public spaces, it's about private spaces. In the scenario I wrote about above, every house in the neighborhood has a seven-foot-tall cinderblock wall around it. The guy was flying over these walls to look in the people's first-floor windows from their backyards. A cell phone on a stick isn't a problem in that scenario.
  - Phlarp 6y ago
    Selfie sticks on subway trains present a far bigger privacy risk than fish-eye lensed sport-cams strapped to a flying lawnmower.
- Phlarp 6y ago
  Even further than this, the type of camera found on most drones is quite terrible for detailed surveillance work. Even if it does have a "high definition" camera recording to local storage these are Gopro style lenses with massive FOV, fisheye distortion and calibrated to handle a very wide range of light exposure up to and including direct sun. Shooting meaningful video through a window is a joke at best. As you've identified the noise generated at distances close enough to resolve any meaningful detail are even more comical Large lenses are very heavy and benefit greatly from a stable platform. Tripods and low earth orbit are preferred by spies of consequence.
  - Accujack 6y ago
    So all those government types using technologies like "gorgon stare" from aircraft and other aerial platforms aren't consequential?
    - Phlarp 6y ago
      Gorgon Stare is, to my understanding, using much larger fixed wing aircraft capable of carrying and stabilizing the added weight of a telephoto lens. Glass and mirrors are the key for imaging; multirotor UAVs have very limited payload lifting capabilities and even if they can produce the required thrust, an offset center of gravity caused by large lenses or mirrors slung below the rotors can have profound effects on their agility, speed, and flight time. Gorgon Stare as a program appears to be calibrated towards ID and tracking of vehicle sized targets across an urban landscape; this discussion is about the unrealistic perception that 250g-1kg quadcopters are somehow desirable for perverts. Neither consumer multi-rotors nor military reaper/predators are particularly stealthy surveillance options since anybody close enough to spy on is going to be well aware of the aircrafts presence. 10 foot mirrors in low earth orbit tend to be the tool of choice for serious spies.
- heavyset_go 6y ago
  > Surprised that even tech enthusiasts are often so fearful of drones while not worried about the hundreds of cameras already filming their activities in most public places. The cameras are also in neighborhoods, and if you have neighbors, you probably have several cameras pointing at your property, too. Ring cameras are everywhere, and since they upload to the cloud, their recordings are one request to Amazon away from being in the government's hands.
  - sokoloff 6y ago
    What you can film from your doorbell camera location is of much less concern to me than what you can film hovering outside my window.

bluescrn 6y ago

If you really want to spy on somebody, you don’t use a noisy buzzing drone right outside a window, or hovering in an otherwise empty sky. Even something as crude as a smartphone on a stick could be more covert. Surprised that even tech enthusiasts are often so fearful of drones while not worried about the hundreds of cameras already filming their activities in most public places.

reaperducer 6y ago
It's not about the public spaces, it's about private spaces. In the scenario I wrote about above, every house in the neighborhood has a seven-foot-tall cinderblock wall around it. The guy was flying over these walls to look in the people's first-floor windows from their backyards. A cell phone on a stick isn't a problem in that scenario.
- Phlarp 6y ago
  Selfie sticks on subway trains present a far bigger privacy risk than fish-eye lensed sport-cams strapped to a flying lawnmower.
Phlarp 6y ago
Even further than this, the type of camera found on most drones is quite terrible for detailed surveillance work. Even if it does have a "high definition" camera recording to local storage these are Gopro style lenses with massive FOV, fisheye distortion and calibrated to handle a very wide range of light exposure up to and including direct sun. Shooting meaningful video through a window is a joke at best. As you've identified the noise generated at distances close enough to resolve any meaningful detail are even more comical Large lenses are very heavy and benefit greatly from a stable platform. Tripods and low earth orbit are preferred by spies of consequence.
- Accujack 6y ago
  So all those government types using technologies like "gorgon stare" from aircraft and other aerial platforms aren't consequential?
  - Phlarp 6y ago
    Gorgon Stare is, to my understanding, using much larger fixed wing aircraft capable of carrying and stabilizing the added weight of a telephoto lens. Glass and mirrors are the key for imaging; multirotor UAVs have very limited payload lifting capabilities and even if they can produce the required thrust, an offset center of gravity caused by large lenses or mirrors slung below the rotors can have profound effects on their agility, speed, and flight time. Gorgon Stare as a program appears to be calibrated towards ID and tracking of vehicle sized targets across an urban landscape; this discussion is about the unrealistic perception that 250g-1kg quadcopters are somehow desirable for perverts. Neither consumer multi-rotors nor military reaper/predators are particularly stealthy surveillance options since anybody close enough to spy on is going to be well aware of the aircrafts presence. 10 foot mirrors in low earth orbit tend to be the tool of choice for serious spies.
heavyset_go 6y ago
> Surprised that even tech enthusiasts are often so fearful of drones while not worried about the hundreds of cameras already filming their activities in most public places. The cameras are also in neighborhoods, and if you have neighbors, you probably have several cameras pointing at your property, too. Ring cameras are everywhere, and since they upload to the cloud, their recordings are one request to Amazon away from being in the government's hands.
- sokoloff 6y ago
  What you can film from your doorbell camera location is of much less concern to me than what you can film hovering outside my window.