TY - JOUR
T1 - The View from Above
T2 - A Survey of the Public’s Perception of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Privacy
AU - Nelson, Jake R.
AU - Grubesic, Anthony
AU - Wallace, Danielle
AU - Chamberlain, Alyssa
PY - 2019/1/2
Y1 - 2019/1/2
N2 - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming increasingly popular, both for hobbyists and within the commercial, industrial, and military sectors. Approximately one million new UAVs have been registered in the United States, with the majority being recreational UAVs. This growth of UAV activity and their increasingly common public presence engenders a wide variety of opinions, perceptions, and concerns among individuals about UAVs, particularly concerning personal privacy. Drawing from the privacy and emerging technology literature, the purpose of this paper is to identify how individuals’ perceptions of privacy explain their attitudes on the use of UAVs and whether this aligns with what we would expect from an emerging technology. Utilizing Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) for survey delivery to 2,108 respondents we conducted a descriptive statistical analysis of response frequency and t-tests of group mean differences. The results suggest that individuals who use UAVs, maintain a familiarity with the capabilities of UAVs, and have a basic understanding of UAV regulations, are somewhat less concerned about the growing presence of UAVs as it relates to privacy than individuals who are generally unfamiliar with UAVs, their capabilities, and UAV regulations. Policy implications of these results are discussed.
AB - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming increasingly popular, both for hobbyists and within the commercial, industrial, and military sectors. Approximately one million new UAVs have been registered in the United States, with the majority being recreational UAVs. This growth of UAV activity and their increasingly common public presence engenders a wide variety of opinions, perceptions, and concerns among individuals about UAVs, particularly concerning personal privacy. Drawing from the privacy and emerging technology literature, the purpose of this paper is to identify how individuals’ perceptions of privacy explain their attitudes on the use of UAVs and whether this aligns with what we would expect from an emerging technology. Utilizing Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) for survey delivery to 2,108 respondents we conducted a descriptive statistical analysis of response frequency and t-tests of group mean differences. The results suggest that individuals who use UAVs, maintain a familiarity with the capabilities of UAVs, and have a basic understanding of UAV regulations, are somewhat less concerned about the growing presence of UAVs as it relates to privacy than individuals who are generally unfamiliar with UAVs, their capabilities, and UAV regulations. Policy implications of these results are discussed.
KW - drone
KW - emerging technology
KW - privacy
KW - regulation
KW - UAV
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85061034537&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85061034537&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10630732.2018.1551106
DO - 10.1080/10630732.2018.1551106
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85061034537
VL - 26
SP - 83
EP - 105
JO - Journal of Urban Technology
JF - Journal of Urban Technology
SN - 1063-0732
IS - 1
ER -