Security and privacy risks in drone-based last mile delivery

The consideration of drones for last mile delivery brings with it several challenges that include both physical ones such as battery life, drone range, carrying capacity, and form factor of the drone as well as those related to security and privacy of the parties associated with any given packet as well as its content. Privacy and security aspects are significant since last mile delivery drones operate outside the warehouse and are not under complete control of the delivery service operator. This is especially salient with respect to communications between the drone and outside entities that are not necessarily authorised for such communication by the operator. Even if such outside entities are authorised to communicate with the drone, while it is in the open, there may be restrictions on the types of information it can reveal to any given external entity. In addition to an overview of the main security and privacy issues in drone-based last mile delivery, we discuss general security and privacy issues and how these translate to drone-based last mile delivery. We consider various facets of issues related to privacy and security of drone-based last mile delivery. Specifically, we study risks associated with privacy and security in this environment with specific emphasis on those related to codes, external entities, and communication signals. We then identify some of the gaps in associated extant academic literature that could potentially be addressed in future studies.