Okay, shift change
What those articles usually focus on are surveillance by law enforcement and government agencies, conveniently forgetting every other application that UAVs can be used for, which is almost infinite... Agriculture, search and rescue, aerial photography, transportation (cargo), mapping, pipeline inspections, security, atmospheric sampling (think NASA), meteorology, firefighting, wildlife tracking, communications, media (airborne video platform, MUCH cheaper than a helicopter), farming/ranching, lumber and oil industry, archeology, monitoring railroad lines, and the list goes on and on (and on).
I honestly believe that they'll be revolutionary in how a lot of things are managed; one I'm really excited about is search & rescue. Instead of having some searchers on the ground and maybe a plane or two in the air, several cheap UAVs with advanced sensors can be launched to cover a massive area in a short time with no risk to human pilots or crews.
Now, think logically about the absolutely EPIC undertaking it would be to build the infrastructure, aircraft, train crews, and maintain the fleet of UAVs that it would actually take to actually keep tabs on
you. A UAV with a camera is capable of looking at one thing at a time. You're going to be seen on CCTV cameras more times in your next trip to the grocery store than you probably EVER will be by UAVs... the simple answer is that there is no reason to use a UAV for that purpose. Instead, I believe that they'll be used for things like traffic monitoring (news helicopters are already watching you drive), monitoring high-risk operations such as felony warrants (helicopters already do that), car chases (helicopters already do that), etc etc.
As with any technology, there is room for abuse. First thing that comes to mind is the scene in
Blue Thunder where the pilots hover quietly outside a woman's window to watch her change... there's also a good chance that someone a couple of buildings over is already doing that with a telescope. However, the pros so outweigh the cons with UAVs that for me, there's really no question.
Big Brother is already here, no doubt about that. Will he use this tech? Probably, just as he uses the internet, GPS trackers, cell phones and essentially every other piece of technology available. That doesn't mean we have to be afraid of it.
I probably won't change any minds, but I urge you to really think about the implications of what I'm saying. UAVs are opening up a whole new industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars and will create a HUGE number of jobs... and surveillance of average, everyday people is a speck in the grand scheme of things.
And that's just the aircraft. Don't get me started on USVs, UGVs, and UUVs
74novaman wrote:
I'll save you the time:
I envision UPS drones bombing my house from 10,000 ft with car parts and ammunition.
Yep, I like where we're going with this technology.
A friend and I were already discussing delicious cookie deliveries by RC plane between our houses.
Only an aggie...jk and gig em 
