Rescue mission

You are a national authority wanting to use drones on rescue missions during an emergency or after a natural or humanitarian disaster. For example, you deploy a drone equipped with thermal imaging, a mobile phone signal sensor and GPS capabilities to search for hikers lost in the woods.

Below you will see some of the main privacy and data protection issues that could arise in this situation and tips/ safeguards for how to avoid them. Keep in mind the detailed information provided in the Handbook.

Privacy and Data Protection

  • PRIVACY

    Transparency, visibility and accountability:  Drones
    can remain undetected by individuals on the ground, who may not be aware that
    a drone is in operation or that it is collecting their personal data. This is
    especially true in the forest where trees could obstruct the visibility of the
    drone. Even if people notice it, they are unlikely to be able to identify the
    operator or the specific mission that is being undertaken.

    Bodily privacy:  This can be threatened when drones are
    fitted with equipment that, aside from visual information, has also thermal
    (e.g. thermal sensors) or other capabilities, e.g. facial recognition,
    biological and chemical sensors.

    Privacy of location and space: Persons have the right to
    move freely without being identified, tracked and monitored, even in public
    spaces. Use the drone to look for and pursue specific people only in emergency
    circumstances.

  • DATA PROTECTION

    There is a risk of collecting significant amounts of personal information
    about people in the woodland, including location data, body characteristics
    and other personally identifiable information.

    Lawfulness, fairness, transparency:  Your collection
    and processing of personal data must be lawful, based on one of the options
    laid down by EU law. It must be fair, meaning that it must not cause any harm
    to the individuals. It must also be transparent – people have to know if their
    images have been captured, by whom and why.

    Purpose limitation: People have the right to know exactly
    for what purpose their data is collected and, once you inform them of the
    reason (security, safety and rescue missions), you cannot use their data for a
    different incompatible purpose (e.g. examining visitors to the park for
    marketing purposes) without informing them again and ensuring your actions are
    lawful (see above).

    Storage limitation: You should not keep the footage of
    people in a manner that would allow their identification for longer than
    necessary to achieve your legitimate purpose. However, consider if there are
    other legitimate reasons to keep the information, for example for insurance
    needs, archive necessities or other legal requirements.

    Integrity and confidentiality:  Where you have footage
    of identifiable people, you should make sure that that data is stored in a
    secure and protected manner. It should be protected from unauthorised access
    by both third parties, as well as your own employees.

    Accountability: Remember that, if you collect personal data
    and can choose what to do with it, you will be accountable if you don’t follow
    any of these principles.

  • SAFEGUARDS

    TIPS - Consider how best to inform persons that
    they may be subject to surveillance in the event of a rescue mission, e.g.,
    have signs at the entrance to a park / walking path and add information on
    the website of the location, if there is one.

    TIPS - Do not fly too close to persons so as to make
    them feel uncomfortable or cause them harm.

    TIPS - You must act in accordance with the applicable
    rules of law. Take time to understand those. Since some of the information
    you may collect, for example the thermal body images of the people in the
    park, may be considered sensitive data, special rules may be applicable.
     

    TIPS - Once the mission (i.e. the legitimate purpose) is
    finished, discard data that you collected, unless it is necessary for
    subsequent investigations or legal actions constituting a legitimate
    purpose. If any data needs to be stored, ensure that personal data are
    stored and processed securely and protected from disclosure and unlawful
    intrusion. Only store the minimum personal data necessary.

    TIPS - Do not share data on identifiable persons with
    third parties without those persons’ consent or without another legal
    obligation requiring you to do so.

    TIPS - Consider taking steps, such as blurring as soon
    as possible to minimise the amount of personal data collected from people
    inadvertently captured by the sensors of the drone. However, pay attention
    not to remove information that may be necessary at a later stage for
    investigations, insurance purposes or pursuant to other legal requirements.

    TIPS - Individuals recorded should have a right to
    access the material concerning their own personal data and to request that
    the data controller delete that material. They should be informed of this
    right. However, pay attention to any other legal requirements you may be
    subject to.

    TIPS - Be aware who the data controller and processor
    is, especially if you are carrying out this activity together with another
    company. Remember that data controllers and data processors are subject to
    various legal obligations in the EU.