EPIC Appeals Decision Allowing FAA Drone Committee to Operate in Secret

EPIC has appealed a lower court decision allowing the FAA's Drone Advisory Committee to conduct much of its work in secret. EPIC filed suit last year against the industry-dominated Committee, which has consistently ignored the privacy risks posed by the deployment of drones—even after identifying privacy as a top public concern. As a result of EPIC's lawsuit, the Committee was forced to disclose hundreds of pages of records that it unlawfully withheld. But the lower court ruled that the Committee did not need to disclose records from its secretive subcommittees, where many drone policy recommendations were developed. EPIC will now challenge that ruling before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The case is EPIC v. Drone Advisory Committee, No. 18-833 (D.D.C.).