The Pros And Cons Of Unmanned Aerial Systems

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The FAA ushered in a new era in December when it released the long awaited unmanned aerial systems (UAS) registration rules. Although these rules apply to everyone operating a system in the U.S. airspace, they had a greater impact on private user. Why? Simply stated, the U.S. government has been operating unmanned systems over the U.S. for a couple of years now. While operational use has been limited, an article published by MPR News touts the benefits of Customs and Border Patrols’ (CBP) use of the MQ-9 Predator drone. “The drone is mostly used to look for signs of illegal border crossings. The Predator carries radar that can track moving people or vehicles over a wide area and tell what direction they’re moving” (Gunderson, 2015, p. NA). Although the use of drones along the southern boarder have come under intense scrutiny there are other uses to be considered. For example, the CBP has “flown missions for sheriffs in North Dakota and Minnesota…Predator drones also monitor flood water on the Red River using radar images to look for changing conditions like ice jams” (Gunderson, 2015, p. NA). In response to privacy concerns, the CBP is quick to point out that the Predator is unarmed, uses a lower resolution camera when compared to the military version and does not have facial recognition capability. …show more content…
Although the Predator provides a technological advantage, the degraded aspect of the equipment, DHS drones do not have the same vulnerability protection as military drones, leaves it vulnerable to hacking, GPS spoofing and jamming. In an “effort to bring its database of tens of million mug shots, fingerprints and other data on criminals into the 21st century” (Casey, 2015, p. NA), the FBI has introduced its Next Generation Identification (NGI) system. The system “contains nearly 125 million criminal and civilian fingerprints and 24 million mug shots” (Casey, 2015, p. NA) and allows federal, state and local agencies around the country to upload photos and videos and get a response back from the FBI on the same day. Although privacy concerns with this system are well founded, the FBI is already reporting positive results. In one such case the FBI managed to locate a convicted sex offender after eluding authorities for 19 years. Privacy advocates, claim the facial recognition aspect of this technology is easily abused and exposes unwitting citizens to scanning without prior permission. Stephen Morris, …show more content…
NA). The pilot program will “use personally identifiable information (PII) collected from refugee applicant interviews and a subset of data from subjects apprehended at or near the US border” (Kimery, 2015, p. NA). In a time when, the number of refugees seeking asylum is increasing, this technology may be the answer to how the U.S. both protects its borders and provides relief to refugees from around the world. The non-U.S. citizen aspect of this program may slow the asylum process down as refugee photos and fingerprints are compared to those of known or suspected terrorists. However, the benefits of such a program are evident when you consider the current civil war in Syria, the number of Syrian refugees seeking asylum around the world and the potential for terrorists to infiltrate our borders using fake Syrian credentials. It’s a starting point and as a pilot program its intent is to “determine functional and technical requirements for a multi-modal biometric

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