Written by: David Lacy 

By 2015, law enforcement, colleges and private users will have the chance to use drones as they see fit. This is a good thing, but it’s not without its concerns.

This could be great for research. Who knows what companies such as Google could do if they had a drone to use for things like Google Maps?

Universities could also use this for classes either teaching students how to use them or giving grants to professors for research, but with things like this we always have to look at the concerns.

Privacy is something that Americans love, and despite having it constantly invaded by the government, we generally believe that we have privacy in our lives.

With drones now being implemented by law enforcement, who knows what kind of trouble could be brought to the private sector? We could see a loss of privacy under the right conditions.

Let me explain. After 9/11, America gave up a lot of its rights to privacy so that the government could pass the Patriot Act.

This allowed our government the right to wiretap and do other things that would never have passed if we had not just dealt with the devastation of 9/11.

So what’s stopping the government from passing a bill that allows law enforcement to use these drones to spy on communities in the U.S. that may or may not be in connection with terrorists? Is this really the best option?

What if Valdosta decides it would like something like this to help keep crime down in the city? Would you be OK walking out of your house, apartment or dorm and seeing a drone flying overhead? Now this is all just hypothetical but not as far-fetched as it may sound.

This is not the only issue. Some people are concerned about airspace. If we have drones flying over different places, will this cause trouble for small airports or cities with Air Force bases?

So how do we find the balance between something that could be used for good but could also have repercussions? Who is protecting us from these things? These are the questions that we must answer in order to have our rights as citizens protected.