On 25 September 2019, Trilateral conducted, in cooperation with RoboAcademy, a DroneRules PRO training session at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering TU Delft in the Netherlands. This was the final in a series of workshops that brought together more than 90 drone stakeholders in 6 different countries (Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands) and gave them the opportunity to learn about privacy and data protection by accessing the online Data Privacy Course developed within this project.
DroneRules PRO project contributes to the creation of a privacy culture among drone professionals in Europe by providing them with high-quality online information and education resources. The following resources have been developed in the framework of the project:
- E-learning Course
- Privacy Code of Conduct
- Pre-flight Checklist
- Data Protection Impact Assessment template
- Privacy-by-design Guide
There materials are specifically tailored to different groups of drone professionals and can assist them in critically assessing the privacy and data protection risks posed by their activities and identifying appropriate safeguards to mitigate those risks.
Trilateral, by building on its expertise in the privacy, data protection, ethics and drone fields, is responsible to develop and finalize the content of the DroneRules PRO project resources and outputs. Trilateral also led the organization of the training sessions, where the online course was tested and evaluated.
From June to September 2019, DroneRules PRO organized 7 free-of charge training sessions in Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. In these sessions, drone professionals had the opportunity to use the online course in 6 different languages (Dutch, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish) and to learn how to identify good-practice solutions in relation to their drone operations.
A diverse group of participants attended those workshops including drone pilots, drone operators and drone manufacturers. On top of this, members of the project’s advisory board were invited and participated in the training sessions, including members of drone industry associations, such as the Portuguese Association of Unmanned Aircraft,and regulatory bodies such as the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, the Polish and Spanish Civil Aviation Authorities and the European Aviation Safety Agency.
Participants found the online course easily accessible, useful and a very good source of the privacy and data protection obligations relevant to drone professionals.
As one participant mentioned: “The course is really well put together. I like how it progresses and applies the concepts. It’s a powerful way of re-enforcing the learning.”
The idea to include different activities in the e-learning course, such as games and tests, was also very well received as it makes the training more engaging easy to use.
In general, the vast majority of the participants is willing to use the DroneRules PRO resources in their professional drone activities to meet their data protection obligations in the future. One of the participants said in particular: “The course offers clarity on what many operators in this area consider to be a minefield. I will definitely be using it.”
The online course is available in the following link: https://drpro.azurewebsites.net.
The additional resources (Privacy Code of Conduct, Pre-flight Checklist, Data Protection Impact Assessment template, Privacy-by-design Guide) can be found here: https://dronerules.eu/en/professional/resources.
For more information on DroneRules PRO, visit the project website or contact our team.
