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>> I have an interesting bill that I'm filing tomorrow.
It's drone legislation, and anytime someone asks me, "Well,
tell me why you're filing this," I feel like I need
about 20 minutes with them.
But basically, unmanned aerial vehicles,
which are commonly referred to as drones,
are cheaper than they used to be.
And when people think of drones, they think of Pakistan
and Afghanistan, and us sending drones by our military
and dropping bombs or taking pictures.
But here in the U.S., you can go to the store
and buy a $500 drone or a -- or perhaps more expensive drone,
and you can send it up over your house, you can send it
over your neighbor's house, you can film, you can take pictures,
you can do all kinds of things with this drone.
And this legislation that I'm going to file tomorrow,
on Friday, basically says that you cannot capture images
of someone's private property without their permission,
and you also can't use those images.
So, an illustration; let's say I own a business and I want
to see what my competitor's up to.
I can't send a drone over his property
to start filming him 24-7 to see what he's doing.
Let's say there is someone who has criminal intentions,
whether it's a thief or a ***,
that wants to send a drone over a neighborhood to kind of see
where people are going, what time are people home,
what time are they not.
The drones that are available, they're getting cheaper
and cheaper; you can basically park a drone
up in the sky and film 24-7.
Law enforcement can also use them to watch us 24-7.
Is that something we as a society want?
So this legislation will provide guidance,
it'll provide a penalty if you basically film or capture images
of someone's private property, and then there's another one
if you actually use those.
So, if you take pictures, it's one offense; if you put them
on the internet, it's another one,
and it gives someone a recourse if they feel
like their privacy has been violated.
Also, it gives guidance to law enforcement,
requires a search warrant if they're going to just film
over your property; we don't want law enforcement doing
indiscriminant surveillance at will,
so there's several provisions, exclusions --
border security is one, responding to an emergency.
But it's just going to be filed on, on Friday,
and I believe the Texas Tribune is going to do more of a story
on it on Monday, so there'll be some more information about it.
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