The question isn't really if we have a reasonable expectation of aerial privacy, but do we have that right? We may have it under the 4th Amendment, but that might only apply to law enforcement searching for signs of criminal activity. All this is still a gray area.
My thinking is that we do have that right, but to what degree? Here's a personal "for instance". I can key in my home address right now, go to Google Maps, then click on "satellite view", and see my house. I can do a maximum zoom and distinctly see one of my vehicles sitting out back, and next to that vehicle is a black shape. I have two big black dogs. That black shape can be nothing else but one of my dogs. The dogs are the only black shapes in my back yard. I can scroll over to my neighbor's house and see one of them out in their back yard, though I can't tell if it's him or her. And that view is just with Google Light. No telling how much detail I could see if I used the paid version.
I can click on my cousin's house in Conway, SC, then go to "street view" and see her husband sitting outside in a lawn chair.
So where does privacy begin and end?
What are you gonna do? Shoot the Google Car as it drives past, photographing your property. Probably not a great idea.
Personally, I think this Kentucky guy acts and sounds like a jerk having a knee jerk reaction to a fairly mundane event. Thinks he's being "spied on" or something. And he's dumb enough to fire off a shotgun into the air in a neighborhood. And where's the proof the drone was spying on him or his family or his daughter or his dog or cat or whatever?
I wonder what's next on his hit list? Maybe the camera down at the corner convenience store, or the cameras in the bank. Or maybe that one up on the traffic light.
I hope he has to pay for the drone, the camera, and gets a fine on top of that.
In case y'all think I'm kiddin' about the Google Map/Satellite View thing...a screenshot is attached.
