I should clarify . I'm talking about full sized drones . Maybe I should call them pilotless conventional aircraft ?
If you think about a four seat helicopter and the financial gain from not carrying the extra weight of the pilot it starts to make a bit of sense . And then there's the no limit of pilot flying hours as well as eliminating pilot error . It all adds up to a big improvement .
Interesting you mention the privacy thing . It appears that drones can invade your privacy to a point . There was a case of a animal protection group hiring a professional drone service to overfly a piggery . The farmer questioned it from a privacy point of view but apparently they were allowed to do it .
Here's a link . It's not the story I mentioned but it is similar .