The Laws of Using Drones in Hong Kong

Firstly, flying Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) may cause invasion of privacy due to loopholes in the laws. According to our survey, over half of respondents think that drones have negative impacts on them and more than eighty percent of them are concerned about infringement of personal privacy, because drones with cameras and sensors can gather a huge amount of data along the flights, no matter intentionally or unexpectedly, resulting in collateral intrusion of privacy (Cheung, 2016). As the legal requirement of using UAS, there are only five no-fly zones in Hong Kong where are the vicinity of an airport and aircraft approach and take-off paths (Civil Aviation Department, 2018).

The guideline that the drone users should not operate the drones between many high-rise residential buildings is just suggested by Civil Aviation Department (Civil Aviation Department,2018). The users could follow the guideline depending on their own decisions as the guidelines are not in the regulations of using UAS. Hong Kong citizens' privacy is not certainly protected under the Privacy Ordinance, as there is no registration system on the drones, it is hard to prosecute for drone operators' criminal liability even if their drones capture citizens' privacy through windows outside densely packed buildings. Also, it is commonly seen that mass media infringe upon celebrities' privacy through using drones. The mass media usually reveals the celebrities' private life without their permission on such newspapers and magazines.

According to our survey, over eighty percent of respondents think that it is not feasible that mass media should shoot celebrities' daily life by using drones, and over seventy percent of them think that it would not be authorized by the celebrities. It is proved that Hong Kong people not only are concerned about infringement of their privacy by using drones, but also oppose that action happens on the celebrities. Moreover, a third party can obtain someone else's privacy who is being captured when the aerial camera is operated in high buildings. As the drones are controlled using remote controllers through radio signals. Restricted by the processing power of the UAS and the remote controllers, the radio signals are usually unencrypted (City University of Hong Kong, 2015). This represents they are openly broadcasted and eavesdroppers can capture all videos sent from the drones to the remote controllers over the air.

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