For you HOA board members who are planning on buying drones to spy on your neighbors, you’ll have to watch out for some new regulations. Your drones will have to be registered in a federal database. Although I generally hate excess federal regulations, this one is kind of cool because your name and address will go into a database which is a public record. We’ll all be able to learn which board members or management companies are using this incredibly invasive technology.
I should charge money for psychic readings! It was four or five years ago that I began predicting the advent of drones and that they would eventually be cheap enough for the boards of Homeowners Associations to start using them to inspect the most private part of your property. Your nude sunbathing or hot tub trysts could be played on the TV set at the HOA clubhouse and you probably wouldn’t win a legal case.
Well, so far I’m batting about 90% so far. The drones are here. They cost as little a four hundred bucks. And they’re popping up in thousands and thousands of places. Realtors are using them to advertise homes and neighborhoods. Terrorists are using them to interfere with commercial aircraft. Voyeurs are using them to videotape you and your lover on the backyard blanket. The FAA only controls drones in airspace over 1000 feet.
Privacy? Fugeddaboutit!
There’ve been a number of cases where homeowners have shot drones out of the air. The shooters usually end up being arrested and jailed. But it’s a whole new area of developing law and will probably take a decade or more to resolve. In the meantime even if a jury finds you not guilty you will have expended hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees.
I’ve predicted for several years that Homeowners Associations would eventually start using drones to increase their ability to spy on the tiniest infractions by HOA members.
Because HOAs are generally unrestricted by laws or ethics they get away with some really crude privacy invasions. With incredibly inexpensive flying nightscope cameras that means no outdoor hot tub or upstairs window is off limits to them.
California Senator Diane Feinstein is concerned. She’s involved in hearings on privacy invasion and had a personal experience with a drone peeking into her window during a demonstration outside her home.
Feinstein thinks there have to be some federal regulations governing drone use. She might even be able to get a law passed. But until HOAs have to obey the kinds of laws that all other Americans have to obey, you’re going to see these kinds of privacy invasions skyrocket.
I’ve been predicting for a couple of years, now, that Homeowners Associations would eventually begin using drones to gather private information on members of the neighborhood. And they will.
The story linked below is about a Seattle man who used a camera-equipped drone to peer through a third story bedroom window of a neighbor. It’s beyond creepy. But it’s exactly what’s coming to a Homeowners Association near you.
If your HOA president hasn’t yet used a drone-carrying camera to spy on you, your lady friend, or your kids while they’re sitting in your private backyard hot tub, just wait.
As readers of my book and blog already know, I’ve long been predicting that HOA boards would begin buying surplus military drone aircraft to spy on homeowners to ensure nobody in the neighborhood had installed an unauthorized hot tub in the back yard.
LOL! There’s already a prankster out there in the cyber world who occasionally pops up with a phony HOA-drones-for-sale website. His last posting was on April 1st, which might give you a key to his mindset. He even provided his phone number and it must be a hoot to answer calls from HOA board members who are actually serious about buying a drone to cruise for covenant violations.
But the story linked below takes the prize. It’s a company that’s come up with a ‘hoodie’ that can defeat air photography by drones. It’s still so close to April Fool’s Day that I’m not sure what to believe. But for some fun reading pretend that you’re really paranoid of neighborhood spying and figure out how to use this new ‘hoodie technology’ to cover your whole house!
