Whether this is or is not "right" in the age of ubiquitous drone availability is up to us (via our government) to decide/change.
Disclaimer: IANAL and before someone starts a company based on this, they should definitely consult one.
It must not fly over people or vehicles with people in them.
State privacy laws may provide restrictions above FAA airspace guidelines.
Drone operators could get in trouble for taking off or landing on private property.
Source: I'm a commercial license holder and have done some personal research into what's ok for the purposes of drone mapping.
Edit: That appears to be in Class B airspace, starting at 680 feet above mean sea level. Ground level there appears to be 250 feet above sea level, so flying a drone means you could go 430 feet above ground level before you do something the FAA gets real angry about.
As a drone operator, you can fly 400 feet above the ground OR 400 feet above any structure you are surveying. So it's something this pilot may want to be very, very careful about.
I can’t get an answer like this. Usually, it’s pivoted to discussing the laws like this vs the accountability of the pilot for the changes in privacy of those they observe (vs someone flying around their own land).
How do you think re: I should/should not do a project like this?
To put a finer point on it, Google Earth and the related ingestion and use is controlled and guided by laws vs a drone pilot and their personal decisions beyond a license requirement. So not apples to apples. Again, candid not critical, I know pilots get a lot of nastiness about this stuff.
Personally, I think it's fine, and don't have a problem with people flying over my backyard & collecting images just like I don't have a problem with satellites adding images of my yard to Google Earth. I think it's pretty cool that I can zoom in and see my car in my driveway as seen by a satellite flying around the Earth at 17,000 mph.
If there’s a differentiation between the data governance and privacy reqs the satellite is controlled by vs me and my drone, is it relevant to you?
That the large difference in the analogy you’re making.
My opinion is that if the outcome is the same (a view from above is made publicly available) the how isn't a "large difference" from a moral perspective (which is what you were asking about).
What considerations are you making about your neighbors’ privacy, both about flying drones overhead, and then also ID’ing their use of solar?
That video looks like 30+ homes now exposed as owning Solar and open to whatever marketing comes their way now.
I can never get an answer out of drone operators about this. Since home owners can’t control who flies over head, the onus is on the pilot for thinking about it. I can’t tell if pilots ever do, but if they do, what conclusions do they come to?
Edit - I get the laws haha, to the point of my comment, what do pilots feel is right to do vs what’s legal? This is what I mean by rarely getting a straight answer.