WASHINGTON – Amazon’s proposed delivery drones threaten to become high-tech “Peeping Toms,” warned lawmakers from both parties Sunday.
“The thing is that that a drone is going to need cameras on it to guide it, and I think people are going to have real privacy problems,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos last week described his futuristic plan to deploy small drones that would deliver books, DVDs and other goodies to customers’ doorsteps within 30 minutes of their online order.
“Even if it is delivering something you want, that it is scanning all of our neighborhoods — there will be very little privacy left in that kind of a situation,” Schiff said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who famously filibustered the nomination of CIA Director John Brennan to highlight his fears about the domestic use of military drones, agreed.
Paul said the swarms of delivery drones would require new “Peeping Tom” laws.
“I’m worried about the government looking in our backyards and I’m worried about private companies looking and counting and peeping in our windows,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”