How to Hide From Drones in the Age of Surveillance

Drones are an amazing part of our digital age, offering all kinds of utility that was never possible before. From wildlife conservation, to helping to predict the weather (yes, that’s right – you should consider reading this if you don’t believe us!), they are changing the way we do things around the world. They are largely used so people can get some fantastic video and photos without having to hire out a helicopter. Helping users see the world from a different angle. But drones can also be used to spy on people. For those who like their privacy in an age that is becoming less and less private, I have a few tips for you on how to hide from drones.

Crowded Skies

Over the past decade there has been an explosion in the public’s use of drones – everyone at least knows someone with a drone thanks to the decreased cost of the lower end models, making them more attainable by many. As drones enter an already crowded airspace, any governing body of the skies are struggling to respond. The near future is likely to see even more of these airborne technological wonders hit the sky, flown by an ever-growing range of people from a variety of backgrounds.

How most people feel about drones is still up in the air, but increased drone use has sparked a variety of efforts to curtail drones. These reactions range from public laws exerting community control over local airspace, to the development of intelligent jamming equipment and tactics for knocking drones out of the sky.

From your companies to major defence contractors there is a scramble to deny airspace to these drones, to hijack drones at any opportunity, to control drones physically and even shooting drones out of the sky. Anti-drone measures range from the digital to the physical. Many of these anti-drone measures are expensive and difficult to understand. Some break laws. The cheapest – and not illegal – way to avoid a drone is by hiding.

How to Disappear

The first thing you need to consider when you are trying to hide is your natural and built up environment around you. You need to use these varying terrains to get the best of these sky hawks. Waiting for bad weather can be a great option, because less noticeable, and often smaller devices, end up getting blown away in those conditions. High winds, dense fog and heavy rain is your friend if you want to dodge these kinds of drones.

You cannot bet on this though so take advantage of trees, walls, tunnels, and alcoves around you to avoid drones. These will be invaluable if you want to dodge every kind of drone. Government drone included.

The second thing you will want to do is remove your digital fingerprint if you are more serious about avoiding drones. Turn off any wireless device like mobile phones or anything with GPS systems, since they regularly transmit local related data that could pick up on where you are. This is useful for evading drones but is also important for avoiding other privacy-intruding technologies.

Keep an Umbrella Handy

Umbrellas are surprising effective and simple to use when looking to avoid a drone’s line of sight. They are also super affordable, easy to carry, difficult to see around and they are fairly inconspicuous. You can customize your umbrella to better deflect drones as well if you know how too.

To summarize, drones are everywhere these days. We cannot escape them but there are things we can do to keep out of their line of sight. Reducing exposure to GPS related technology will make you harder to track and simply being aware of your environment and how you can use that to your advantage to avoid drones helps. Keep your eyes on your skies and you will know how to hide.