Citing local citizen’s privacy concerns, Arizona lawmaker Sonny Borrelli wants to outlaw flying drones and quadcopters over private property and taking pictures or videos.

The proposal would make it illegal to use an unmanned aerial vehicle to “intentionally photograph, electronically record, collect information, conduct surveillance or gather evidence” unless written consent of the owner has been given.

Borrelli says he is trying to make sure the potential law has no unexpected consequences. “I don’t want to make some teenager a felon because he’s got a toy he’s flying around spying on the neighbor’s daughter. We need to be reasonable about this.”

Media attorney Dan Barr said there may already be sufficient privacy protections in the law. He said existing statutes are built around the concept of a reasonable expectation of privacy.

“You have a reasonable expectation of privacy in your house. But if you walk around with the window shades open, if people can see you from the street, you don’t have that expectation,” he said.

Barr adds the same privacy rules applied to Peeping Toms should apply to drones as well.

As a final note from the DS Drones Team we want to ask where the liability is to prove that pictures taken were intentional. There is a lot of gray area in this and it is something that should definitely be looked at, we want people to continue to feel safe in their homes when our new Drone Overlords take to the sky.

We also want to make it clear that these laws need to be approached very carefully or we will have punitive damages against people that really do not deserve them.

What are your thoughts?