Surveillance drones deployment on US's Great Lakes raises data collection fears

[Diamond_Dog]

Surveillance drones deployment on US’s Great Lakes raises data collection fears

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/09/great-lakes-military-surveillance-drones?CMP=share_btn_url

The Great Lakes have rarely ever been considered a hotbed of illicit drug activity or center for illegal immigration.

But that hasn’t stopped US government agencies and the company behind surveillance sailing drones from treating the region as such. The US Coast Guard recently announced it has launched an armada of at least six sailing drones in the Great Lakes this summer in an attempt to, in part, “track illicit activity”.

At 33ft long, Saildrone Inc’s Voyager surveillance vessels can operate for 100 days at a time without needing servicing. The California-headquartered company claims the drones can operate for months without refueling and can “track vessels across wide maritime regions”.

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This is a very troubling arrangement from a privacy and accountability standpoint, as we have very little public information about data retention, who can access what data is collected, or how people using the region recreationally [can] be swept up in a data system built for border enforcement.”

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The Trump administration has long accused Canada of allowing illicit drugs into the US, a charge that has fueled crushing tariffs on Canadian goods headed south of the border. However, data shows that tens of millions of dollars’ worth of drugs are seized by Canadian border agents after entering Canada from the US every year.

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Pleasure boaters beware.