I'm pretty sure your example is illegal under current laws. Photographing someone from afar doesn't require a drone. Replace "drone" with "telephoto lens" and y

I'm pretty sure your example is illegal under current laws. Photographing someone from afar doesn't require a drone. Replace "drone" with "telephoto lens" and you'll still draw the ire of law enforcement if you go around taking pictures of children in their back yards. More importantly, "think of the children" is a common justification for bad laws. Human minds tend to give too much weight to low-probability stories. Nobody freaks out about the thousands of children who die every year from car accidents, but if a technology has the potential to take pictures of children surreptitiously they call for bans. Drones are just like cars: people are going to be harmed by them, but the benefits are almost certainly greater than the costs. And that's before you consider how many applications for drones that we haven't yet thought of.