Peeping Tom Drones

Obviously people shouldn't be flying close to residential properties or zooming in, and there's potentially always going to be weirdos that do all sorts of filming they shouldn't, whether it's using a drone to film someone in their garden or using their phone to try and film an upskirt, but the laws are pretty clear about where you can fly in the UK with drones under 250g, which is nearly everywhere.

One of my guilty pleasure youtube channels is DJ Audits, where he films commercial premises and business estates from public access, often eliciting a negative reaction from people who aren't aware of drone and photography laws in public in the UK.

The frequent argument is 'well, how would you like it if I came to your home and did it', except he doesn't do that, he just exercises his rights to film in public and only films businesses.
 
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I saw a guy outside of a tower block of flats with a drone not so long back, very blatantly attempting to look through peoples windows. It's not the only instance where I've seen some dodgy drone use either, shame as they're fantastic tools and hobby devices when used responsibly but there's always going to be idiots that cause problems.
 
UberTiger said:
One of my guilty pleasure youtube channels is DJ Audits, where he films commercial premises and business estates from public access, often eliciting a negative reaction from people who aren't aware of drone and photography laws in public in the UK.
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Not heard of this, looks entertaining
 
Yeah, it can be good. There's a lot of filler in the vids and they're not all good so I often skip through to the good bits. But when it kicks off it can be good. It's interesting to see the progression of how the police handle it too over the last year or so. They've become much more aware of the rights of the public to film. Some are exemplary examples of how the police should handle it, but many still aren't that informed, some are willing to learn, some aren't. This one had the MD get quite hot headed about it!
 
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He does also capture some really interesting footage of commercial premises too, I remember he did some cover the construction of data centres in London. They were all worried about the cranes etc. He still operated it safely, but the footage was really cool to see.
 
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Yeah just watching a random one now, the footage is nice but he does seem to go out of his way to aggravate people slightly whilst obviously keeping things nice
 
Yeah, some 'auditors' are complete dicks. But I find he straddles the line quite well between winding them up a bit to create some good content, whilst still ultimately being educational about it and willing to talk to them when they're actually willing to listen and learn.
 
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UberTiger said:
One of my guilty pleasure youtube channels is DJ Audits, where he films commercial premises and business estates from public access, often eliciting a negative reaction from people who aren't aware of drone and photography laws in public in the UK.
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I've seen a few self-appointed "auditors" doing similar things, be it drones, motorcycles, or even guns. They love to skirt the legal lines on technicalities and think it's funny to force a Police intervention.
Thing is, few of them are aware that, while they might be complying with drone laws and public photography laws, there are still other laws covering things making a nuisance and wasting Police time that they're infringing.
I saw one video where the drone guy had been trying to film an MoD instalation and was getting pissy when armed Police rocked up to ask what the **** he thought he was doing.

UberTiger said:
It's interesting to see the progression of how the police handle it too over the last year or so. They've become much more aware of the rights of the public to film. Some are exemplary examples of how the police should handle it, but many still aren't that informed, some are willing to learn, some aren't.
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Is causing incidents on purpose the right way for private individuals to go about their self-appointed mission of re-education, though?
They all think the Police should know this one law that they themselves can probably recite by rote, but if that were the case then it would apply to every single law that Police cover... Even lawyers specialise in individual types of law and even they don't know everything, so how can you expect a copper to know?

We use drones in our work and are more familiar with the law than the average member of the public, but even then we wouldn't try and skirt the line just to **** people off and then call them stupid, just as we wouldn't respond kindly to someone trying to do it to us.
 
UberTiger said:
Yeah, it can be good. There's a lot of filler in the vids and they're not all good so I often skip through to the good bits. But when it kicks off it can be good. It's interesting to see the progression of how the police handle it too over the last year or so. They've become much more aware of the rights of the public to film. Some are exemplary examples of how the police should handle it, but many still aren't that informed, some are willing to learn, some aren't. This one had the MD get quite hot headed about it!
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I'd love to know the outcome to ones like that.
 
Not right if people are intentionally invading privacy with them but if I'm having a bath/shower or changing, etc. I close the curtains or blinds and have frosted glass, etc.
 
Gray2233 said:
I saw a guy outside of a tower block of flats with a drone not so long back, very blatantly attempting to look through peoples windows. It's not the only instance where I've seen some dodgy drone use either, shame as they're fantastic tools and hobby devices when used responsibly but there's always going to be idiots that cause problems.
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could've just been dropping off some pharmaceuticals.
 
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