![]() Rotem explained that along with a friend he is scanning the web for leaky databases and came across the Dronesense data. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, OTR chat on or email Rotem, an independent security researcher, discovered the exposed Dronesense data and flagged the issue to both Dronesense and Motherboard. But little research has been done into how those drones are being used, what they are surveilling, and their use in police work.ĭo you work for a drone company? We'd love to hear from you. According to the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, at least 599 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. Several towns and cities put temporary moratoriums on drone use by government actors, but largely the controversy around their use has died down, and police drones have quietly proliferated around the country. When drones were first being incorporated into American airspace, there was much controversy about law enforcement use, with groups like the ACLU and Electronic Privacy Information Center saying that new privacy laws were necessary before their widespread adoption. Drones have been used to arrest and surveil people and have also been used to locate missing persons and to assist in rescue operations during natural disasters. Law enforcement and public and private search and rescue organizations have been using drones in the U.S. No drone camera footage was included, but as well as the flight path data, the data also contained what brand of drone each customer was using for the flight, the pilot's name, email address, and other technical information about the drone. The list included over 200 different entries, although some of those appear to be test or administration accounts. The database is separated by different organizations, such as the Atlanta Police Department, Boise Fire Department, City of Coral Springs, Nassau County Police Department, and even U.S. "In addition to potential harms to privacy, insufficient security of law enforcement systems can also undermine the integrity of criminal investigations and even the justice process." "If Dronesense was breached, then it's just another example of law enforcement putting too much faith in new surveillance technologies without fully accounting for the risks," Dave Maass, senior investigative researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said in an email. A third named "Mapping Mission" has nearly two dozen so-called "capture points," likely referring to spots for the drone to photograph, spread across a residential Washington D.C. ![]() Another nearby flight marked as "disaster assessment" shows a drone flying over a playground. One showed a drone meticulously scoping out an apartment complex and its car park near Atlanta, Georgia. Motherboard obtained some of this data and was able to plot drone flights from a police department onto maps. ![]()
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