Raising awareness of civil drones' operators about Privacy and Data protection obligations

Call summary

Scene Setter

The European Commission highlights in its Communication "A new era for aviation - Opening the aviation market to the civil use of remotely piloted aircraft systems in a safe and sustainable manner" the economic and societal potential offered by the development of innovative civil (governmental, corporate and commercial) applications of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) commonly known as drones. It states its intention to support the emergence of a drone's market and the competitiveness of the related industrial sectors, which include a large number of SMEs and start-ups.

This call for proposals is based on Article 9(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1287/2013 of 11 December 2013 establishing the COSME 2014-2020 Programme. It aims at setting-up an action to help SMEs to address the privacy and data protection issues related to commercial drones' operations in order to design applications acceptable to the public and cope with regulatory obligations. Following the recommendation made by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) in its opinion of 24/11/2014 on the Commission Communication 2014/207 “A new era for aviation - Opening the aviation market to the civil use of remotely piloted aircraft systems in a safe and sustainable manner”, the measure will reinforce privacy and data protection awareness amongst commercial drones manufacturers and operators across Europe, developing and delivering training and encouraging them to implement adequate measures.