Peeping drones invade our privacy

When an Upper Hutt woman came face to face with a black drone in the darkness outside her bedroom window, she was not alone.

The late-night incident now has Marita Maass considering selling her property.

Information released by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) under the Official Information Act shows that she was far from alone regarding her run-in with a drone flown by an unknown operator.

It seems that drones frequently breach privacy in New Zealand to the extent that authorities are called in. One, whose privacy was invaded from the air, fired at a drone with a shotgun; another threatened to shoot one from the sky.

Earlier this year, a Motueka man said a peaceful stroll turned ‘‘really creepy’’ after a mysterious drone followed his family along the beach.

There were more than 300 drone-related calls to CAA in 2017 and, in almost two-thirds of those cases, the drone operator was never identified.

Those unidentified operators included drones being flown near windows at night and others flown above private property, including one that hovered for five minutes and another with a ‘‘large camera’’ outside a house.

The operator who ‘‘stalked’’ Raglan locals with a camera-equipped drone was never found, nor was the one who repeatedly flew over a Lower Hutt home at night.

Likewise, the person who piloted a drone over a child in an Auckland driveway last May was not identified.

About 11pm on a late January night, Maass was reading when she heard a buzzing sound, which she first thought was her bathroom pipes.

She had left her bedroom curtains open to let in cool air.

"I pulled the curtains away and there was this drone about two metres from my face." Upper Hutt woman Marita Maass

‘‘I pulled the curtains away and there was this drone about two metres from my face; hanging there at my window with this little red light.’’

She yelled at the unmanned device, pulled her curtains, shut off the lamp, and leapt into bed shaking.

‘‘They would have seen me seeing them. I felt violated, like my privacy has been invaded. It was an absolute shock to me.’’

She rang the police but there was not much they could do other than offer advice and tell her to call back if the drone returned.

Maass also logged complaints with the CAA and the Privacy Commissioner.

She has since heard from others in the area who had seen drones flying above them while their kids were out swimming, or while having a barbecue with friends.

‘‘There should be a law that says drones shouldn’t be used among private homes – go to a park.’’

Police said staff noted her complaint on the night, gave advice, and asked Maass to ‘‘ring back if the drone was sighted in the area again’’.

The information supplied by CAA included all drone-related calls including near-misses with aircraft and out-of-control drones.