TSA addresses privacy questions before airport drone deployment

The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is preparing to begin drone inspections of airports and other transport hubs to assess the security of those facilities, but before doing so has moved to address any public concerns that images or other identifying data will be collected of people who happen to be around areas under surveillance.

The Privacy Impact Assessement for TSA Unmanned Aircraft Systems document released late last month spells out in detail how the agency plans to use drones around airports and various other transport terminals. It also takes pains to note that deployment will not involve the identification of individuals – except in exceptional and troubling circumstances.

TSA has already been active testing tech at airports in Miami, Los Angeles, and elsewhere around the US, though up until now that’s been confined to illegal UAV detection, identification, and mitigation, not operating craft of its own.

Read more: After Miami, LAX selected to stage TSA anti-drone tests

Now the agency plans to take to the air on its own to perform security audits of transport hubs. TSA says it will deploy drones for “specific activities to support the agency’s mission to protect all modes of transportation, and, as appropriate, to provide support to other federal agencies.” 

Generally speaking, it will pilot UAVs with the objective of inspecting individual transport platforms, and identify areas where unauthorized entry or other potential security threats need to be addressed through corrective measures. 

But as part of its April brief, TSA says neither workers around areas surveyed by drones, nor members of the public who happen to be within camera range risk identification or invasion of their privacy. 

For starters, it says, video won’t typically be shot until an operator spots a potential security risk, and records it to assist remedial action. Meantime, even when TSA drones are commanded to capture footage, onboard cameras won’t be activated to zoom close enough or otherwise take sufficiently high definition shots that could identify features on human faces.

The theoretical exception to that rule, the document notes, would be if a UAV operator conducting infrastructure inspections witnessed an unauthorized person breaching security perimeters or otherwise engaging in illegal activity.

Yet even in those cases when full video capabilities would be activated to record events, the TSA notes any details captured by its drones would “likely need to be combined with other information collected during an investigation including possible interdiction and apprehension of a suspect to confirm the identity of the individual.”

The agency will be less discreet capturing facial and other data that may be used to identify people in its drone work during “law enforcement operations at special events and to assist with the response to transportation incidents such as rail accidents, pipeline spills, or downed aircraft.”

Photo: Olivia-Anne-Snyder/Unsplash