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VOL. 7, ISSUE 4 (2025)
The legal frontier of drone privacy in India: Challenges and regulatory solutions
Authors
Annie Wilson, Dr. V R Dinkar
Abstract
The proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs), commonly referred to as drones, has reshaped technological, commercial,
and governance landscapes in India (Jain 2021) [8]. While the Drone
Rules, 2021 have eased operational requirements and enabled a thriving domestic
UAV ecosystem, privacy safeguards remain notably absent (Rao 2020) [15].
Global scholarship demonstrates that drones pose unique risks by enabling
persistent, AI-assisted surveillance even in public areas traditionally
presumed to be free from privacy expectations (Clarke 2014; Finn & Wright
2012) [4, 5, 22]. The article situates UAV privacy concerns within
India’s constitutional framework shaped by Puttaswamy, comparative global
regulatory developments, and emerging technological capacities (Calo 2012;
McNeal 2013) [3, 11]. It identifies critical lacunae, lack of
consent standards, data-governance protocols, oversight bodies, limits on state
surveillance, and retention norms, while proposing a reformist, privacy-centric
regulatory architecture informed by international models (Toscano 2020; Goddard
2017) [6, 21]. Ultimately, the paper argues that UAV privacy
regulation is a constitutional imperative essential to protecting autonomy,
democratic accountability, and fundamental rights (Peters 2018; Hildebrandt
2016) [7, 14].
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Pages:112-114
How to cite this article:
Annie Wilson, Dr. V R Dinkar "The legal frontier of drone privacy in India: Challenges and regulatory solutions". International Journal of Law, Policy and Social Review, Vol 7, Issue 4, 2025, Pages 112-114
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