With the pace technology advances today, it’s astonishing what’s being invented and being made possible. Between the new Google glasses and cars that park themselves, it’s mind-boggling to think about what might come out next week, next month or next year.

I’m sure many of us have heard about the recent developments in unmanned aerial vehicle technology and the many potential uses and benefits they can bring to the table. For example, Dominos is working on improving their drone delivery methods since the first drone pizza delivery in the UK last June. It’s no question that the increasing use of UAVs will have an immense impact on our daily lives in the years to come.

The Federal Aviation Administration plans to allow commercial, military and private drone use in U.S. airspace in 2015. I don’t expect that on Jan. 1. the skies ignite in a frenzy of drones launching into the air all over the country, but I know I can’t wait to have my favorite pizza — chicken-bacon-ranch with mushrooms — delivered to me via quadrocopter.

We should not be naive to the fact that these vehicles could be used for more than just dropping food on our doorstep.

For the past six months, more and more reports of the documents released by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden show that the U.S. government has been spying on its citizens and on friendly foreign governments relentlessly, no doubt in direct violation of the constitution. Yet it seems as if no one really noticed. Or worse, no one cares. I’m sure I’m not the only one, but the thought of the federal government listening in on our phone calls is not something to take lightly.

Some of this work in drone research is being conducted right here at UND, one of a handful of schools that has a drone program, and, according to a quote by Professor Al Frazier in an article posted on the UND website, we’re one of only two counties where the police have FAA permission to use drones. He says the local police have used drones seven times in the past five months, and although the Grand Forks Police Department can’t launch drones without the university’s permission. It’s a peculiar thought knowing that the future of unmanned robotics is, in part, developing right here in Grand Forks.

And this isn’t a bad thing. I’m all for the use of UAVs to protect local communities and aid in public use, but we can’t let how we use this technology get carried away. It’s one thing for a sheriff to use a drone to follow a suspect trying to escape arrest, but it’s another thing when the federal government starts using the drones to keeps tabs on each and every one of us. We all saw on TV the extent to which the FBI used drones to follow Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspected Boston Bomber. Who’s to say they can’t have drones buzzing over New York or Chicago on a daily basis, hiding behind the guise of “national security?”

Of course, there is the argument that if you have done nothing wrong, you don’t have anything to worry about. But that’s not what this is about. If we want to stay a free society, we need to keep up with the system of checks and balances laid down by our founding fathers. This apathy toward how the U.S. government conducts its intelligence gathering can’t become the norm. In some of the leaked documents revealed by Snowden, it’s said the U.S. spied on the personal phones of friendly foreign dignitaries. Is this the kind of behavior we want our elected officials supporting?

At what point are we going to fall off the slippery slope that is the premise of George Orwell’s novel “1984,” in which the ever-present government surveillance controls peoples’ lives? We need to pay more attention to and be more wary of how this greatly beneficial, yet powerful technology is used by those who wield it.

Dusk Crescenzo is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].