Sweden bans drones for privacy reasons

Swedish Supreme Administrative Court bans camera drones to comply with citizen privacy law

Sweden is clipping the wings of camera drones. The Swedish Supreme Administrative Court has, in fact, equated them to real surveillance tools, therefore, a risk to the protection of privacy. It is the first country to ban their private use.

The Swedish Supreme Administrative Court has been adamant: the flight of drones with cameras is authorized only for the prevention of crimes or in case of accidents, not to monitor their homes or for purely recreational use. A ruling that is raising a lot of criticism because it deals a blow to the producers of the booming sector of remotely piloted aircrafts with damages that will amount to millions of euros. Sarà un caso isolato, o la decisione del paese scandinavo potrebbe influenzare altre nazioni? È davvero la fine delle foto e dei filmati ad alta quota?

Droni poliziotto

La Corte Suprema Amministrativa svedese, dal canto suo, autorizza l’uso dei droni – nel rispetto delle norme in vigore – al solo scopo di prevenire, indagare e individuare reati e incidenti, quindi, a esclusivo uso e consumo della Polizia e delle locali forze dell’ordine.

foto-2-5.jpgFonte foto: Pixabay

Droni messi al bando, mettono a rischio la privacy

Fulmine a ciel sereno

La notizia è stata diffusa dal quotidiano Aftonbladet.se che ha anche raccolto le prime reazioni dell’associazione droni svedese che non si aspettava una sentenza così severa e irremovibile. Producers unanimously state that the new law literally "kills" the promising market of remotely piloted aircrafts with the loss of revenue and, consequently, of many jobs. And that the law, moreover, first and foremost, those professionals who have good reason to use drones - such as journalists or filmmakers - to film and photograph places from above for work purposes. The only consolation, says the Swedish UAS association - (Unmanned aircraft systems) - is that it will be difficult to enforce this new ban. In fact, it is up to the county administrative bodies to report any violations to the competent bodies that will have serious difficulties in verifying that these are really drones with a camera on board. A judgment that could make jurisprudence at European level, let's wait the next months to see how the situation will evolve.