GoPro Drone Hovered Over Central Florida, Induced New Video Voyeurism Concerns

According to a recent report by Local 6, a GoPro drone was discovered that had nearly two hours footage from around central Florida, which consisted of numerous clips of unsuspecting people going about their daily lives.

The drone was found after a Local 6 employee watched as the gadget fell out of the sky and crashed into a tree.

After the said employee turned the camera over, it wasn’t long before questions started to be asked about the innocence of this drone/camera combination.

Although many of the recorded flights started off relatively normal, it wasn’t long before the footage started to trigger privacy issues.

Not only did some shots show the drone coming within inches of an apartment window, but it also recorded a female sunbather relaxing by a pool, completely unaware that anything was recording her.

This type of footage is undoubtedly part of the reason why questions are being asked about video voyeurism at the hand of this GoPro drone and potential others.

Although this incident could be chalked up to an experiment gone awol, other recreations of such behavior could result in much more questionable recordings.

Despite the havoc this piece of tech could have caused, the drone helped locate the man behind the controls. They were able to do this thanks to some shots of his surroundings, which when analyzed, led them to his apartment, which in turn seems to reinforce the concerns about how dangerous drones like this could be.

Even though Guimy Alexis, the student behind the flying camera, claimed that he had no bad intentions, he did admit that he could understand why such actions would have people worried:

“I worry that someone will do something stupid. But if someone does do something stupid, they’re the bad apple, the bad egg. They’re the exception, they’re not the vast majority of us. The vast majority of us just do this for fun.”

Whether that justification sits with you is another story entirely because, although it does seem a dangerous road to go down, the legislation in Florida about using these sort of drones is aimed at police use and not “regular use.”

Therefore, residents might be starring in a few more GoPro drone videos for quite some time yet.

[Image via Shutterstock]