HB 979 - Florida Drone Privacy Act

• Requires the Department of Law Enforcement to adopt guidelines for drone use by state and local law enforcement agencies and mandates annual reporting to the Governor and Legislature on drone operations by agencies in jurisdictions with populations over 150,000.

• Prohibits using a drone to capture images of individuals or privately owned property with intent to conduct surveillance; violation is a second-degree misdemeanor.

• Makes possession of illegally captured images a second-degree misdemeanor and disclosure, display, or distribution of such images a first-degree misdemeanor, with defenses available if the person destroys or stops using the images immediately upon learning of the violation.

• Prevents illegally captured images or incidentally captured images from being used as evidence in legal proceedings, except in prosecutions for violations of this section.

• Allows property owners or tenants to file civil actions for injunctive relief and recover civil penalties of $5,000 for illegal image capture or $10,000 for disclosure/distribution, plus actual damages if captured with malice, within 2 years of the violation.