• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

2

Now worth $200 million, Sarah Jessica Parker credits being ‘one of eight kids that struggled financially’ for her hunger, ambition, and work ethic

3

Ikea’s billionaire founder was so frugal that he bought clothes from flea markets and took free salt and pepper from restaurants

1

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

2

Now worth $200 million, Sarah Jessica Parker credits being ‘one of eight kids that struggled financially’ for her hunger, ambition, and work ethic

3

Ikea’s billionaire founder was so frugal that he bought clothes from flea markets and took free salt and pepper from restaurants
TechDrones

NoFlyZone, a ‘Do Not Call’ list for drones

By
Andrew Nusca
Andrew Nusca
and
Andrew Zaleski
Andrew Zaleski
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Andrew Nusca
Andrew Nusca
and
Andrew Zaleski
Andrew Zaleski
Down Arrow Button Icon
February 18, 2015, 1:27 PM ET
Airplane flies over a drone during the Polar Bear Plunge on Coney Island in the Brooklyn borough of New York
An airplane flies over a drone during the Polar Bear Plunge on Coney Island in the Brooklyn borough of New York January 1, 2015. The Coney Island Polar Bear Club is one of the oldest winter bathing organizations in the United States and holds a New Year's Day plunge every year. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri (UNITED STATES - Tags: SOCIETY ANNIVERSARY) - RTR4JUL7Photograph by Carlo Allegri — Reuters
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Drones aren’t taking over Shawn Sedlacek’s backyard, but the 43-year-old wants to make sure the handful of aerial robots he has seen flying around his Los Angeles neighborhood keep their distance from his house.

“I intentionally purchased a home on a hill which gives me breathtaking views and what I think is a sense of privacy,” he says. “I would prefer a drone to not be flying over or near my property snapping pictures of my life, of my possessions.”

Sedlacek is one of more than 10,000 people to list his address on NoFlyZone.org. Think of it as the equivalent of the Do Not Call list for the drone age. Sedlacek and thousands of other people are hoping to send a clear message to drone pilots nearby: Keep your quadcopter off my lawn. People who don’t want drones flying above or near their houses register their home addresses with NoFlyZone’s online, global database. An email confirmation completes the free process, whereby each property’s precise longitude and latitude—but not addresses or property owners’ names—are shared with and accessible to, so far, seven manufacturers of drones and drone operating systems, including DroneDeploy and Ehang, makers of the Ghost Drone.

“What we’re doing is providing them with the data, and it’s up to the partners for how they implement it,” says Ben Marcus, founder of the NoFlyZone service. “At a bare minimum, our partners are going to be providing this information to their users. Some are taking it a step further by physically preventing flight by coding in a geofence.”

Marcus says an online map will soon be available that shows the positions of registered properties and other locations—airports, military installations, hospitals, schools, and temporary flight restrictions—included in the NoFlyZone database.

Drone owners will steer clear if they know the coordinates of nearby properties that have opted into NoFlyZone’s database, the thinking goes. The same applies to drone manufacturers, who can distribute NoFlyZone’s data through software updates. Future plans include letting NoFlyZone registrants customize their airspace to allow package-delivery drones to reach their doorsteps but still prevent camera drones from flying overhead. For now, people can register one property per email address on NoFlyZone.org. Proof of residence—a utility bill, for instance—has to be provided if someone wants to register a second property, and, to protect registrants’ privacy, property data are “separated so it’s difficult to tie a name to an address or email address,” Marcus says.

Marcus, who is 32 years old and lives in El Segundo, Calif., has been an aerial enthusiast from a young age. As a boy, he flew model airplanes. At age 17, he became a licensed pilot. At 24, Marcus cofounded his first company, jetAVIVA, a broker of light business jets. He owns a drone that he uses to take photos and video, and thinks that drones will be as common as cell phones a decade from now.

“I’ve become more and more excited about the possibilities drones bring to us,” he says.

Those possibilities have expanded as drone technology has shrunk in recent years. It’s only a matter of time before lightweight drones for photography, filmmaking, aerial surveying of crops and oil stacks, advertising, and other uses are commonplace. (The Federal Aviation Administration recently released proposed regulations—a long time in the making—that will eventually govern such commercial flights.)

But the proliferation of small drones has led to louder calls regarding people’s privacy rights. What’s there to ensure a drone isn’t spying on someone in their home? President Obama pledged last summer to issue an executive order that would place the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in charge of developing privacy guidelines for commercial drone flights. After a quadcopter crashed on the White House lawn in January, the president reiterated those privacy concerns, saying a structure needs to be established to prevent drones from “violating people’s privacy.”

“There’s really no reason for people to be flying over private property without that owner’s permission,” Marcus says.

Although, there’s nothing NoFlyZone can do in the way of enforcement. Signing up on the site can’t stop drone operators from flying near someone’s house. Even the site’s FAQ page points out that registering your property on NoFlyZone is no guarantee that a drone fly-by won’t happen in front of your foyer window. “We’re seeking the voluntary participation from the drone industry and drone community,” Marcus says.

According to Stuart Banner, a UCLA law professor and member of NoFlyZone’s advisory board, homeowners do own a certain amount of their airspace. But Banner contends any argument over whether property owners own the sky above their houses is a moot point. “It doesn’t really matter for NoFlyZone whether landowners own their air rights,” he says. “Because you and I, we can make a contract that you won’t go somewhere.”

Whether drone operators stick to an honor system by voluntarily agreeing to keep their drones from flying over the properties of NoFlyZone registrants is the question.

“We have an opportunity for this industry to do the right thing: to make it safe, secure, responsible,” says Marcus. “I really think this can expand the market for drones, not limit it.”

Like this story? Read “Get Ready for ‘Drone Nation’” from the Oct. 8, 2014 issue of Fortune magazine.

About the Authors
Andrew Nusca
By Andrew NuscaEditorial Director, Brainstorm; author, Fortune Tech
Instagram iconLinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Andrew Nusca is the editorial director of Brainstorm, Fortune's innovation-obsessed community and event series. He also authors Fortune Tech, Fortune’s flagship tech newsletter.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
By Andrew Zaleski
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

gas
LawAntitrust
Gas station owners have found a use case for AI, lawsuit says: colluding to fix prices
By R.J. Rico and The Associated PressJune 25, 2026
2 hours ago
g
AIunemployment
One of the Democratic Party’s brightest stars is co-founding a group to help with the coming AI jobs earthquake
By Josh Boak and The Associated PressJune 25, 2026
2 hours ago
apes
HealthAnimals
Scientists tickled monkeys to find if they have the same giggles as humans — and they do
By Adithi Ramakrishnan and The Associated PressJune 25, 2026
2 hours ago
GTA 6 release date is finally here—but the $80 price tag and missing disc have gamers furious
Arts & EntertainmentGaming
GTA 6 release date is finally here—but the $80 price tag and missing disc have gamers furious
By Whizy Kim and Tech BrewJune 25, 2026
5 hours ago
stock
InvestingMarkets
How one chip stock reversed the global tech selloff, exposed AI’s ‘memory tax’ and made the case for an entire valuation regime change
By Nick LichtenbergJune 25, 2026
8 hours ago
Larry Ellison quietly gave $45 million to a pro-Trump group—then Oracle landed a starring role in a $500 billion AI buildout
PoliticsLarry Ellison
Larry Ellison quietly gave $45 million to a pro-Trump group—then Oracle landed a starring role in a $500 billion AI buildout
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
8 hours ago

Most Popular

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
Success
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
17 hours ago
Now worth $200 million, Sarah Jessica Parker credits being ‘one of eight kids that struggled financially’ for her hunger, ambition, and work ethic
Success
Now worth $200 million, Sarah Jessica Parker credits being ‘one of eight kids that struggled financially’ for her hunger, ambition, and work ethic
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 24, 2026
2 days ago
Ikea’s billionaire founder was so frugal that he bought clothes from flea markets and took free salt and pepper from restaurants
Success
Ikea’s billionaire founder was so frugal that he bought clothes from flea markets and took free salt and pepper from restaurants
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 25, 2026
17 hours ago
Amazon's record Prime Day masks a darker truth: Americans are spending more and getting less
Retail
Amazon's record Prime Day masks a darker truth: Americans are spending more and getting less
By Nick LichtenbergJune 24, 2026
1 day ago
Ray Dalio just finished a 10-day trip to China. He says global leaders know America ‘doesn’t have what it takes to fight to maintain its empire’
Asia
Ray Dalio just finished a 10-day trip to China. He says global leaders know America ‘doesn’t have what it takes to fight to maintain its empire’
By Nick LichtenbergJune 24, 2026
1 day ago
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
Success
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 23, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.