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From the Pages of Orlando Weekly: Medications to be Delivered by Drones in The Villages

Image: UPS Drone, United Parcel Service Twitter page
Image: UPS Drone, United Parcel Service Twitter page

A new service being offered in The Villages could give a whole new meaning to catching a buzz.

Drugstore chain CVS and the United Parcel Service will start medication delivery by drone in Florida’s largest retirement community May 4.

The Federal Aviation Administration granted permission last year to use drones that can carry up to 5 pounds as far as 12 miles for commercial applications. The service has been in testing phase since October, but it could be invaluable to people in quarantine now.

Much is being made of the convenience of this healthcare innovation. Deservedly so. But as with all technological leaps forward, it’s a good idea for users to stop and consider the unintended, or undesirable, consequences.

Ingenious devices like video doorbells and audio virtual assistants quickly normalized the idea that we are all being watched and listened to all the time, yet most consumers say they would not be comfortable being recorded without permission.

The convenient devices we welcome into our homes, and now into our residential airspace, have all sorts of other capabilities, and the corporations that sell them to us have repeatedly violated their users’ trust.

In other words, believing that Alexa only listens when you want her to shows an unhealthy naïveté.