T here are many reasons to choose a room on the higher floor of a hotel — including the potential of enjoying a better view and having less of a chance of hearing the noise on the street below — but there is also the promise of privacy high above humanity…
…or so you might think.
Higher Floor More Private? Think Again
Although the following incident occurred outside of a residential building in Atlanta, a drone equipped with a high-resolution video camera could be lurking outside of the window of your hotel room.
Charlie Rose — no, not the talk show host and journalist — recorded video of a drone with her mobile telephone as the drone was flying outside of the building in which she lives on the night of Friday, April 22, 2016; and she now feels uneasy and has major concerns regarding her privacy, according to this article from WSB-TV Channel 2 Action News in Atlanta.
Patty Bentley — who is a member of the House of Representatives in the state of Georgia — was one of several sponsors of a bill introduced during the most recent legislative session related to drones where it would be illegal for unmanned aircraft to capture images which are considered an invasion of privacy. The bill had not become law; but it could be introduced again in the next session.
Summary
Although we value and expect privacy in our homes, we also have a reasonable expectation of privacy when staying in a hotel room while traveling.
Other than the occasional person who might have binoculars in a nearby tall building, the chance of someone peeking in on you was rare — but, increasingly, that is no longer true.
The obvious solution is to use the window treatments in your hotel room to block any view which anyone might have of you; but that also means that you deny yourself of the view from your hotel room — unless you happen to have some exhibitionist or voyeuristic tendencies in which you happen to like to engage…
…but should their be any regulation impose by law which discourages the practice of having drones — especially those with recording equipment — from hovering near buildings which house homes or hotel rooms in order to help preserve the privacy of their occupants?
Photograph ©2016 by Brian Cohen.
