Regulating government and private use of unmanned aerial vehicles: Drone policymaking, law enforcement deployment, and privacy concerns

Abstract

This research investigates the relationship between drone policymaking, law enforcement deployment, and privacy concerns. Building my argument by drawing on data collected from BI Intelligence, FAA, GlobalWebIndex, McKinsey, Pew Research Center, Statista, USPS, and YouGov, I performed analyses and made estimates regarding unmanned-aerial-system applications, requirements for unmanned-traffic-management (UTM) systems that direct drone flights (%, as relevance), top U.S. industries using drones (%), consumer interest in using drones (%, in each age group, 16–24/25–34/35–44/45–54/55–64), % of U.S. respondents who would trust a drone delivery service run by certain companies, % in each age group (18–29/30–49/50–64/65+) who think it should not be allowed for private citizens to fly drones near people’s homes/on beaches/in public parks/at events such as concerts or rallies, and % of U.S. adults who say they would feel curious/interested/ nervous/indifferent/excited/angry/scared if they saw a drone flying close to where they live. The data for this research were gathered via an online survey questionnaire and were analyzed through structural equation modeling on a sample of 4,800 respondents.