Drone Use Cases and their Privacy Impacts: A Taxonomy

Abstract

Drones and drone-mounted sensors provide a litany of potential uses for local authorities and municipalities. Early-adopters have piloted and tested the use of drones for specific scenarios. However, widespread implementation requires appropriate planning and development of relevant governance, oversight, and controls to ensure that privacy and data protection rights are respected. This article provides an overview of the evolution of drone-use scenarios and a snapshot of the current state of the art in respect of balancing the utility of drone-mounted sensors against the data protection and privacy impacts of these technologies. We set out a taxonomy of use case scenarios for drones and drone-mounted sensors. The ambition of our taxonomy is to provide guidance and support for policymakers and users of these technologies in assessing and mitigating data protection risks in the operation of drones and drone-mounted sensors.