Here's a potentially scary thought for you: in ~2000, this would have been proof positive of state involvement. In 2011, this is barely newsworthy. In 2021, this will be about as within the reach of the average middle class teenager as a three ounce device capable of instantaneous worldwide encrypted communication.
This is not going to be a happy adjustment for people who have to maintain physical security of e.g. a base in Iraq or a community center in a small town in Iowa outside which the president is speaking. At the moment the man-portable drones mostly carry cameras, but the US is proving in spades that cameras are really lethal if you do them correctly. The smart money is not on "a camera will be the most lethal thing ever attached to a $100 electronic device the size of a seagull."
This is not going to be a happy adjustment for people who have to maintain physical security of e.g. a base in Iraq or a community center in a small town in Iowa outside which the president is speaking. At the moment the man-portable drones mostly carry cameras, but the US is proving in spades that cameras are really lethal if you do them correctly. The smart money is not on "a camera will be the most lethal thing ever attached to a $100 electronic device the size of a seagull."