Personal anti-drone warning system launches on Kickstarter

Are you afraid your neighbors are using drones to spy on you through your windows? Then this Kickstarter project is for you. The Personal Drone Detection System is raising a modest $8,500 in order to test and produce a desktop sensor system that can tell when a drone is loitering within 50 feet. So if you’re at work and someone flies a drone with a GoPro near your home, the system will alert you.

“There are legitimate uses for domestic drones, but there are still concerns about privacy and surveillance by various entities,” says Amy Ciesielka, the founder of Oregon-based Domestic Drone Countermeasure, which produced the Kickstarter. The company has reportedly been working on the technology for more than a year.

“Only technology can counter technology,” the company says.

Personal drones are not regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, and there have been instances of unknown drones crashing into buildings and nosediving into sidewalks in big cities. The Personal Drone Detection System is unpatented and, like all Kickstarter projects, there is no guarantee it will ever see production (or that it will work correctly — the system will have to distinguish between a drone and, say, a jogger passing by with a cell phone). However, it is an interesting reflection of the personal drone trend and it does raise real questions about privacy.