To be concerned about drone catching images of my children in paddling pool

[Slightlygiganticpants]

Last night whilst my dc were playing in the garden, (which is completely private and in a rural location, we have about 3 neighbours) a drone flew over several times. The dc were playing in the paddling pool at this time in various states of undress.

My dh got the children in and I went in search of the drone operator. Located him and started filming him with my phone. He was on the other side of the river from my house. He disliked my filming of him and we became engaged in a fairly heated debate with me calling him a pervert and possibly a peadophile. Apparently what he was doing was completely legal (I believe drone was less than 50 meters from us but that is up for debate) and he wasn't filming the dc. He did also phone the police after I left and then came around and spoke to my dh.

I have looked into this since and have found out that this is legal! How? Surely this can't be right? Surely we have a right to privacy in our own garden!

ShavenConnery the airspace 50m above your property is public. The drone didn't need to be 50m away from the property.

There was a very interesting The Good Wife episode about drones, privacy and related issues (Local Neighbourhood Watch was using it): Unmanned recap from Relatively Entertaining

The tangent issues were good - notionally, how much of the space above your home do you 'own'; what are the spaces that are within the guidance and rules of Aviation Authorities etc.

Maybe he didn't film in more crowded places 'cos more people might be pe'ed off and he would have to face more than one or two households. I wonder if it would be a defence for someone up to no good if they say they were just playing with the drone as a hobby and didn't even know where the camera was pointing. Or that it was innocently in and out of a playground space/school/outdoor pool and not hovering.

I'd be suspicious too, op. Ask the police to see footage. Maybe have a word about an intrusion like this.

Isn't the Good Wife american?

He could have said he'd show the footage and it didn't intrude on her privacy. Or have any images of the childer in bathing mode.

YANBU OP. Bloody hell the weirdos on this thread .

Think I’d have done the same op. And probably taken his controller and used it to fly his drone in to his face.

Poloshot It'd be worth the time and I'd imagine if you were sly you wouldn't get caught. Police won't spend too much time on an injured drone.

It's more likely that he is a would be thief scoping out your security than a pedophile. You did well to film him because it will deter him from returning regardless. Re legality. It is not a crime to do this but it may constitute trespass because you own some of the air space above your property. It depends on how low the drone was flying.

@ChipsAndKetchup

"And to the people saying how does she know he was filming please explain the point of a drone without a camera?"

How do you know he was filming? Can you let us in on the secret information that you have access to and we don't?

I still don't understand how he knew there were children, half dressed or otherwise, playing in a paddling pool so far away from where he was standing before he started flying the drone.

Unless he was flying his drone over an isolated area in the hope of happening across such a scenario surely it would have been easier, if he was what OP claims, to just go to a local park or swimming pool rather than messing around with a drone in the hope of finding OP's house.

Password Rejection wrote: the airspace 50m above your property is public. The drone didn't need to be 50m away from the property.

I thought this was interesting and looked it up on the gov.uk website about Drones - are you flying yours safely (and legally)
"not to fly your drone over a congested area, never fly within 50 metres of a person, vehicle or building not under your control".

Genuine question, is there a nuance somewhere which means that this shouldn't be taken at face value? (I have no idea if the drone in the OP's post was ever within 50m of a person or building that wasn't under the drone operator's control.)

I didn't actually just walk over and start calling him names. I was obviously filming him, he became angry (started shouting at me), I responded and this developed into an argument where I called him a pervert and a paedophile.

I have also stated that the distance from us is up for debate. I am not sure if it was within 50m of us or not. I believe it was but really cannot be sure.

Op I'm with you. I maybe wouldn't have had an argument with the guy but I absolutely would have taken a picture or filmed him then reported to the police.
I doubt he phoned the police btw, I think you should follow it up.

I can't understand why anyone would want a drone !!! .. I do think you over reacted .. and I think there will be more and more drones around as more boring wankers with too much spare time buy them ..... to help pheasants and other poor creatures avoid being shot by other wankers ... maybe drone shooting can be a new country pastime ?

If he says he was filming for 'commercial reasons' then he will need to have a licence issued by the CAA, you can check if he has or not in this case.

I can't see the point of drones either for the majority of the time, but I was at a festival where they had some fireworks, and someone got some great footage by flying their drone around filming that.

To recap the points that stand out on this.
Man flies drone around over remote house - once, fair enough, he may have been getting his bearings, but constantly would raise suspicion.
Children are semi-clad in garden - it's their own private garden, they can do what they want in it. However if the drone is constantly flying over whilst the children are semi-clad then I would be suspicious.
Drone operator confirmed he was filming - it is not clear why. That should have been made explicit and he should have shown OP/her husband what he had filmed.
OP filmed drone operator - if she said she was from the property he was flying his drone over and was showing him how it felt to have his privacy invaded, then fair enough. If she just popped up filming him and shouting, I can see how he would have responded negatively.

No idea what you're all smoking today, I'd be fucking livid if someone was filming my kids like that, even in their swimming cossies. Don't give a fuck if it's legal or not, it's horribly invasive and unnecessary. Just because the law hasn't caught up with the technology doesn't make what he was doing less dickish.

If he was flying his drone out of his line of eyesight there must have been a camera on it with realtime recording. He must have taken enough footage of the house to work out the address and come and knock on the door.

The bloke started shouting at OP for filming him. That's when she had a go at him and called him a peadophile. Pretty fair in my eyes.

I'd be on the phone to the police personally with a complaint.

Alicatz66 Drone shooting sounds like it could be the next big thing. We often go clay pigeon shooting at our neighbours. Do you think we could get away with it by saying the drone just got in the way

I don't know or care what the law says (drones are relatively new and the law takes a while to catch up) - it is seriously wrong to fly a drone over someone's private garden, especially where children are playing.

YWNBU OP.

OP how do you know the drone was filming?

I can't understand why anyone would want a drone !!!

Really? You can’t think of a single reason?

I suspect the reason why OP’s husband let her go in search of the operator was because he didn’t agree it was necessary, and the reason why we don’t know what was said between the husband and operator was because the conversation went along the lines of “mate, your wife is nuts”...”yeah, sorry about that”