From the Lawfare Blog:
Robot watchers likely know about the FAA’s recent solicitation of applications from entities desiring to operate one of six experimental test sites for domestic drones.
Last year, Congress ordered the FAA to figure out how to bring drones into the national airspace, and on a broad scale, by late 2015. Thus the test site program, an interim measure meant to help the agency to compile operational data about domestic drone flights. Privacy comes into play here. In particular, the FAA in February also asked for public comment on thesorts of privacy rules that site operators ought to follow, as experimental flights are conducted and information gathered up.
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As I read this, the FAA proposes to require operators: (1) to have some sort of “privacy policy”; (2) to obey applicable privacy laws, and to acknowledge (among other things) the possibility of a test site project’s revocation, upon proven violation of those laws; (3) to comply with any subsequently enacted privacy laws; and (4) to transmit certain kinds of collected data to the FAA.