Protecting Your Privacy: A Guide to Avoiding Drone Surveillance

It's hard to know who owns a drone; some cars have a visible registration number, usually in case the owner forgets.

I watch the drones in the sky with my eyes

I was swimming in the backyard pool one day when I heard a familiar hum. Sure enough, a drone was circling overhead, which disappeared shortly after I flicked it away with my hands. This is where my idea for writing this article came from.

The legality of drone surveillance varies by country and state, but if a drone is flying over your private property and recording you without your consent, call the police. This is an invasion of your privacy.

It's hard to know who owns a drone. In my case, it flew out of sight within seconds. If I had my iPhone within arm's reach, I'd snap a photo of the drone. Some drones have a visible registration number, usually to prevent the owner from forgetting it.

Things You Should Never Do to Drones

There are some effective and perfectly legal ways to avoid surveillance. There are also ways that are illegal for ordinary citizens.

The FAA legally protects drones from:

Shooting: Shooting into the sky is dangerous and illegal. Just don't do it.

Physical Interference: This includes lasers and other objects.

Disable or otherwise tamper: Using blockers and hacking is a crime.

Now that we've got that out of the way, here's what you can do.

Use your surroundings as cover

Own a drone or know someone who has one? I bet you've been in a situation where someone threw something at it. This is not the right way to avoid drones.

You should take a more reactive approach. In bad weather — heavy rain, fog, and high winds — it can be difficult for drones to fly or get great footage. To rate you.

When the weather is nice and you see drones buzzing overhead, find a place where they are less likely to spot you. Trees, alcoves, awnings, and tunnels are all great places to hide when drones pass by.

The Jalisco, Mexico-based CJNG, led by drug lord Nemesio Osegra Cervantes, wears cell phone jammer on its uniform and "employs Middle Eastern terror tactics" by targeting crowds with drones .

They are using drones "to drop bombs on rival cartels and the Mexican Armed Forces."

"They use cell phone wifi jammers to stop these attacks. They use them to stop people from calling for help or calling family when they're kidnapped. They also use them to conduct very sophisticated maneuvers on the battlefield, where they can cover up," Logan said. "They can cover their lines, they can cover their attacks, they can cover their exits -- the way they exit the situation. It takes a lot of training and it's a real threat."

Hove bar blocks cell phone signals and is more social

A Sussex landlord built a "Faraday cage" around his pub to block mobile phone signals to encourage face-to-face conversation.

Steve Taylor has fitted silver foil to the walls and copper wire mesh to the ceiling at Hove's gin barrels.

He said he was tired of people coming in and not socializing with each other or other people in the building.

"I saw things gradually getting worse and I thought, 'I want to stop this,'" Mr Taylor told BBC Sussex.

"I want people to socialize with the people they're with, not with the people they're not with.

"I made the bold decision not to block the signal with mobile signal jammer, but to do what I could with a Faraday cage to get people talking to each other, and it worked really well, to be honest.

"I had a lot of copper mesh and I thought,I can put this on the ceiling."

"I'm looking into whether it blocks the signal, when you put the phone in it, it blocks the signal."

Mr Taylor plans to set up a mobile phone area outside, similar to the smoking area.

"Pubs have landlines when calling 999 in an emergency," he said.

"It's the same as the London Underground - no more dangerous than my pub.

"The response I got was overwhelming. People loved the fact that they could just take a photo and go out and sign in or check in," he said.

"I had a complaint from a customer and she got the signal. We moved her to another table."

Arrested for speeding trap 'jammer'

Device stops camera from taking speed readings

A motorist in south Wales has become the first person in the UK to be arrested for using an electronic jammer to confuse a speed trap.

South Wales Police found the driver with a laser diffuser device in his car under a campaign called "Security Camera Collaboration".

Also known as a wifi blocker, the gadget works by alerting drivers to a laser speed detector and temporarily preventing it from taking speed readings.

The car was recorded speeding on six separate occasions around Cardiff and the South Wales valleys.

However, its travel speed cannot be read due to the signal jammer device jamming the detector.

South Wales Police Sergeant Gary Smart said: "The driver involved has been arrested for obstruction of justice and has admitted the offence."

"Partners will not tolerate the use of such diffuser devices.

He added: "Clearly, people using such devices tend to drive without due regard for speed limits and prevent police officers from carrying out their duties."

There are 33 static speed camera stations and 41 traffic signal stations in the South Wales Police area.

Another 103 mobile stations and 11 mobile units are also used to catch speeders.

Complex devices that prevent the camera from reading data quickly can be purchased from specialized websites.

They work by sending a strong laser signal to a speed detector, which causes a temporary error in the device and prevents a speed reading from being made.

"While legislation has been passed to make the use of radar diffusers illegal, there is currently no legislation on laser devices," said John Rowling of Security Camera Partners.

"Although the government is considering this important issue.

"Using this type of device is extremely dangerous as it puts the safety of other road users at risk by giving drivers a license to drive at inappropriate speeds.

He added: "I hope this arrest will serve as a clear warning to those using such devices to allow them to drive beyond the speed limit."

Dewsbury driver who used speed camera jammer jailed

A driver who used a laser gps blocker to illegally block the signals of road safety cameras has been jailed.

Police say Michael Twizell, 58, used a device on the front of his BMW 3 Series to interfere with camera equipment.

Twizel, from Dewsbury Low Road, was driving the A658 near Harrogate last February when he passed a camera van.

He was jailed for three months at York Crown Court after pleading guilty to obstructing the course of justice.

Cameramen detected the wrong code and North Yorkshire Police launched an investigation.

According to police, Twizel installed jammers on the front of his vehicle to interfere with police camera equipment.

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After the hearing, Traffic Constable Andy Foss said: "The use of a device capable of interfering with police speed measurements is clearly a very serious matter, as has been demonstrated today."

He added: "I would advise anyone who might have a similar device installed in a vehicle to consider the consequences and strongly advise them to remove it to avoid future prosecution."

Twizel was also fined £1,500.

North Yorkshire driver jailed for using speed camera jammer

A driver has been jailed for two months for using a laser jammer to avoid being caught by speed cameras.

In February 2018, Nicholas Burke, 46, used the device to jam the signal from a police security camera van on the outskirts of York.

Police estimate his car was traveling over the road speed limit of 60 mph.

The former car salesman pleaded guilty to perverting justice at York Crown Court.

A portable jammer installed under the front grille of Burke's car prevented the quick readout.

Its use activates a code on the camera, indicating to police that an illegal jammer is being used.

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north yorkshire police said burke admitted in an interview that he owned the laser jammer, saying he installed it because he feared points would be deducted from his licence.

burke, from selby green, north yorkshire, has since quit his job as a ferrari salesman.

traffic constable andy forth said the jail sentence showed "the courts take a very pessimistic view of people using jammer device".

"the purpose of our enforcement convoy is to reduce road casualties," he said.

"as a result, the use of such devices to interfere with speeding enforcement (one of the top four causes of fatal and seriously injured crashes) increases the risk to everyone else using the county's roads and the communities they represent."