Know your boundaries.
According to the Owner of Caribbean Aerial Photography, David Lewis, persons who currently operate drones or plan to do so in the future need to know their boundaries and how far they can and should go when it comes to using these devices to photograph places and people.
He said that when issues do occur, it may be from those persons who may not know the full extent of their responsibilities and accountability when using these devices.
“Well, anyone who is responsible should know their boundaries. I don’t think that you should find many cases as it relates to privacy issues when it comes to drones in commercial usage because most of the commercial operations follow certain protocols... And it is usually the issues where you get people who see a drone on Amazon and then they (buy it) and use it to fly down into somebody’s yard and look around and be malicious. You know, I think that you would see it from the average user, someone buying a drone and not knowing the rules and regulations than a commercial entity,” he stated.
Speaking with The Barbados Advocate on the sidelines of the inaugural Weekend Law Conference under the theme of ‘Keep Up! Law and Innovation’ recently at the Hilton Barbados Resort, Lewis said that while there are no specific laws in place in this country with respect to operating drones, there are laws in place that address issues relating to confidentiality that can help to guide them in what is acceptable and what is not.
“The privacy issues to me as a businessperson operating commercial drones are not really major because we all have information. It is how you use that information that is the concerning part. There are laws that are already in place as with regards to the use of information and confidential information. So taking an image of someone or somewhere and having it is different from taking that information and using it in a malicious way, which then is libellous.” (PJT)