I’ve lived in highrises before because I love a great view, but also because of the privacy it can afford.
If your unit faces the right way, you can have a lot of privacy – unless there is another building right across from you.
My current apartment faces a forest so the only ones looking through my window are the frogs currently doing their (noisy) spring mating.
Other apartment dwellers are not so lucky.
I’ve received missives from several people lately upset about drones that are floating around their windows, invading their privacy.
Like Terry.
She’s upset after visiting her daughter who lives on the 22nd floor of a highrise in the Brentwood neighbourhood of Burnaby. She was sitting there with her daughter watching TV when they noticed something flying outside the window.
“We both went out onto the balcony and saw a drone flying around,” Terry said. “It was moving slowly, as if spying inside the apartments, and hovered way above us before moving out of sight. My daughter also told me she saw what she thought was a bird or something another night, later when it was darker. Once we watched the drone for a while, she realized it probably was a drone she had seen. We watched for a while, hoping to see who the drone belonged to, but it flew way up and away. We saw security people below us but couldn't tell if they were the drone operators.”
Terry – who didn’t want her full name used to protect her daughter - is worried about “peeping Toms” looking to film people who think they have privacy in their bedrooms.
“I think the thousands of people who live in the Brentwood area would be surprised to learn someone is spying on them,” she said.
It’s not just Brentwood either. See the tweet embedded with this blog to see a photo from the Metrotown area.
I don't like this stuff flying around #Metrotown ... for many reasons. pic.twitter.com/2RxE5vwFGT
— Metrotowner (@metrotowner) May 2, 2021
There are restrictions on where people can fly drones, but unless someone is out enforcing those it feels like it’s the Wild West.
If you are doing this sort of thing then you should be ashamed of yourself.
People deserve their privacy.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
