by Tom Blair
Columnist

I’m sure you have heard about the military’s use of unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as “Drones” that WE have killed countless people with, including bad guys, good guys, and unfortunately women and children.

They are also being used more and more by police departments nationwide for surveillance and search missions. These sophisticated remote control airplanes and helicopters are also used for search and rescue, scientific exploration and conservation, forest fire detection, attack vehicles and spying on people.

However, the spying part of these devices can really get hairy. Civilians, drug dealers, perverts and young kids can use them and they are doing just that.

Under a hundred dollars will get you a remote control helicopter complete with camera. Want quality? You can get planes or choppers with a camera and chip that will hold 2 hours of high definition video. You can buy kits to build unmanned, remote controlled planes and helicopters, WITH wireless TV cameras that transmit to receivers or record video. You can also buy ready-made drones. There are thousands of kids (big and small) who are doing this now.

With the Police, FBI, CIA, military and private citizens all getting into this remote control spying, you, as a citizen cannot assure privacy on your own property. There are currently no laws being enforced on the airspace over your home or business.

With the sophisticated cameras we have these days, you better not be doing any skimpy sunbathing in the fenced in back yard. Even in a pitch-black night the infrared vision can capture the moment. No warrants are needed and no court orders necessary to quietly hover over “your” space to spy. As a matter of fact we violate various war acts by taking out bad guys in some foreign countries when we kill someone using a drone. If we are not allowed in a country to “get” someone, does it make it right to have a robot plane do it? I don’t know.

I do know this. The day of anyone having privacy is long gone. The government, the Internet and a good deal of the private sector knows just about everything there is to know about you. Since the conception of the Homeland Security Agency, it’s doubtful you’re going to know just how much is on file about you.

Phone calls, e-mails, Facebook, banking information, security cameras, internet transactions and conversations and the little drones with a camera are all taking us into the world we used to watch in movies and think it couldn’t happen. But “Big Brother” is everywhere now!