On Wednesday, March 6th, ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Adam Schwartz presented testimony to the Illinois Senate Criminal Law Committee on Amendment 1 to Senate Bill 1587 - the Freedom from Drone Surveillance Act. He stated:
The unmanned drones of the future pose a far greater danger to our privacy than the manned airplanes and helicopters of the past. Drones are far less expensive, so they will be far more common. Drones are small and quiet, so they can be secretly deployed. Drones are highly maneuverable, so they can move in very close to the surveillance target.
Reasonable people expect that the government is not tracking our movements in public places, storing that information in a dossier, and later using it against us. When the government monitors where we are, it learns who we are: whether we went to a political protest, a union meeting, a controversial movie, a psychiatrist, a church, or a criminal defense lawyer.
Download a copy of his testimony.