On Ethical and Legal Issues of Using Drones

Extensive use of drones raises many new questions regarding ethics and morality. Questions concern the civilian and military use of drones. Drones can serve as a mobile network that can reach places, where other devices or people can't get to or can only get to with difficulties. They can efficiently collect data from large and hard-to-reach areas. They are often used for scanning and exploring forest and agricultural areas. Together with advanced image and scene recognition methods, they can greatly reduce hard work and help reduce stress in crop growth and protect forests from infestation. Other application areas are e.g. for archaeologists, when exploring remote areas. The speed and efficiency of the capture of a scenenery is a great benefit of this new technology. Many people also use drones for recreational purposes. Therefore, the ethical and legal problems associated with their widespread use should be emphasized.