The patent was originally filed in June 2015 and became public earlier this month. It describes how the company’s drones could be hired to look out for open garage doors, broken windows, graffiti, or even a fire, before alerting the owner of the property.
Using delivery drones for surveillance raises huge privacy concerns for everyone who hasn’t given Amazon permission to view their homes — a problem that Amazon’s patent specifically addresses. The patent describes how geo-fencing technology would be used to ensure that Amazon’s drones don’t capture footage of houses they’re not supposed to. Images could be edited during capture or they processed post-capture. Images could also be limited by “physically constraining a sensor of the UAV,” which suggests a drone’s camera may be physically prevented from looking at any unauthorized houses.
See the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/21/18700451/amason-delivery-drone-surveillance-home-security-system-patent-application