We have relatively new neighbours - moved in to rental house next door less than a year ago, husband and wife, about 50 yrs old, work long hours, he works shifts, quiet and friendly enough. All fine and we were relieved that they turned out to be nice because let's face it, it is always a gamble with new neighbours (we lived next to a nasty one many years ago and the experience was horrid and unforgettable).
The new neighbour (the man) is a hobby wildlife photographer and has a Facebook page, which he invited me to follow, and I do because he is nice and his photos are lovely. He has recently bought a drone that can film in very high quality and travel very long distances. He put his first bit of footage on his facebook page. It filmed from his garden out over the fields behind our houses and back, showing our house and back garden very clearly. That made me feel a bit weird, because we like our privacy, and suddenly random people on social media got a view of a bit of our lives, you know?
Since then he has been using it out the back, presumably practicing with it. We have seen it flying around in the field behind our houses. A couple of evenings ago we were having our usual coffee in the conservatory and the drone was hovering at and then flying past the very end of our garden. We obviously don't know whether he was capturing us (sat in our window) in that footage but it felt uncomfortable because, as said above, we like being private and don't like feeling like we are now potentially on display as we do our normal private things at home.
We haven't mentioned either thing to him because it is awkward. We and easygoing, avoid conflict, and good neighbourly relations make a big difference to having a happy life! 😄 Yes, that makes us sound like saps but it is just that we have reached that stage in life where we can't be doing with other people's nonsense 😄
This morning, though, I have felt quite upset by the drone thing. I got up at 6 and went out in my dressing gown to let the chickens out, as usual, and found that the drone was directly above the middle of our garden!! I stood there staring at it until it flew away and he landed it next door, so am guessing he could see me on his display screen. AIBU to feel intruded upon? I do not want to have to make sure I am decent just to walk through the back of my house (windows at the back have no blinds and are not overlooked by anyone). We have 3 kids, two of whom are still young enough to happily wander around the house and garden partially clothed, and in the summer often wander around naked. We really like living in a house and location where we are not overlooked, not because we do anything weird or illegal 😄 but because we are just private people. This situation is very uncomfortable. Am still pondering what to do about it, whether to go talk to him about how it feels, or post a message to him throgh his facebook page the coward's option or what? I believe what he is doing is not within the bounds of the law because he is 'filming a person within 50 metres without consent'.
Don't need this crap. And I know some of the other neighbours, who are also having their back gardens captured on film, would not react so passively.
Any thoughts on handling this sensibly? I don't think I should write FUCK OFF in white stones on my lawn, not yet anyway!