On October 5, 2018 President Trump signed the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act into legislation. This act funds the FAA through 2023 and includes the Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018. The Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018 authorizes the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to ‘take actions” to “mitigate a credible threat that an unmanned aircraft poses to the security of a covered facility or asset” for the first time ever. Though it is still illegal to shoot down an aircraft in national airspace, the government can now begin testing, evaluating and purchasing counter UAS technologies.

For this article, we sat down with Certified International Privacy Professional Scott Mathews to discuss the opportunities, challenges and new developments associated with this act.