Citation[]
Presidential Memorandum: Promoting Economic Competitiveness While Safeguarding Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties in Domestic Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Feb. 15, 2015) (full-text).
Overview[]
This Memorandum ensures that the Federal Government's use of UAS promotes the responsible use of this technology, strengthening privacy safeguards and ensuring full protection of civil liberties, and promotes better accountability and transparency in the use of this technology by:
- requiring Federal agencies to ensure that their policies and procedures are consistent with limitations set forth in the Memorandum on the collection, use, retention, and dissemination, of information collected through UAS in the National Airspace System (NAS).
- requiring agencies to ensure that policies are in place to prohibit the collection, use, retention, and dissemination of data in any manner that would violate the First Amendment or in any manner that would discriminate against persons based upon their ethnicity, race, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity, in violation of law.
- including requirements to ensure effective oversight.
- promoting transparency, including a requirement that agencies publish information within one year describing how to access their publicly available policies and procedures implementing the Presidential Memorandum.
- requiring agencies to examine their UAS policies and procedures prior to the deployment of new UAS technology, and at least every three years, to ensure that protections and policies keep pace with developments.
The Memorandum also requires the Department of Commerce, through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and in consultation with other interested agencies, to initiate a multi-stakeholder engagement process within 90 days to develop a framework for privacy, accountability, and transparency issues concerning the commercial and private use of UAS in the NAS.