Texas has enacted the most detailed of these laws. Its drone law — called the Texas Privacy Act– explicitly authorizes drones to capture images in certain circumstances. For instance, it permits owners and operators of pipelines to use drones for inspections and university professors to use them for “scholarly research.” The Texas law also allows drones to capture images of people on “public real property,” of people “on real property that is within 25 miles of the United States border,” and “with the consent of the individual who owns or lawfully occupies the real property captured in the image.”
In addition to these permissible uses, the law prohibits certain conduct — specifically, using a drone to capture images of people or privately owned property “with the intent to conduct surveillance on the individual or property.” The law, however, does not define “surveillance.”
Texas deems this conduct a misdemeanor and provides a defense if the alleged offender destroyed the image as soon as he or she realizes it was captured and has not disclosed it to anyone else. The law also makes it a misdemeanor to possess, disclose, distribute, or otherwise use an image after capturing it in violation of the law.
In addition, Texas law gives owners and tenants of private property the right to file suit to enjoin an “imminent violation” of the criminal provisions and to seek civil penalties and attorney’s fees. The civil penalties include statutory damages of up to $5,000 for “all images captured in a single episode” and up to $10,000 for the disclosure or “use” of “any images captured in a single episode.” An owner and tenant also can recover actual damages if he or she can show that the images were disclosed or distributed with “malice.”
