Is this the end to backyard privacy?

The Parrot Jumping Sumo is a responsive bot with a strong personality which rolls, rushes, zig-zags, circles, takes turns at 90. In a flash, it leaps up to 80 cm in height!

Available in August ... The Rolling Spider drone by Parrot Source: Supplied

THE Australian head of leading flying drone maker today called for Australia's privacy laws to be updated to reflect advances in technology.

Parrot Australia managing director Chris Roberts was speaking at the Australian launch of two new mini toy drones, the Parrot Rolling Spider flying drone and the Jumping Sumo drone.

He said technology created challenges for legislators but unmanned aerial vehicles aimed at consumers were not as great a privacy threat as smartphones.

His assurances came after cases in the US of a mother and daughter who were spied on by a drone while sunbaking, and a woman in Seattle who spotted a drone outside her window while she was getting dressed.

Parrot's publicity videos for the toys feature a teenage boy using it to torment his sister.

Mr Roberts said the problem in Australian was that technology had overtaken the laws, and that different states had different laws.

But he said drones were much more obvious than other camera devices.

"These products are not covert. They are noisy, they are visible," he said.

"In a certain way, you can do more with (a smartphone) than you can with a drone. If you were to get out a drone and start flying it around a room or over the fence, then you're going to get noticed pretty quick.

"There is a whole host of things you can do with a smartphone quite covertly.

"There's far more you can do covertly than you can with a product that sounds like a swarm of wasps coming.

"Ultimately, privacy is of course the responsibility of the user. But on the privacy side of things, the laws have to catch up with technology."

Mr Roberts was part of a group of industry and government bodies, including the Civil Aviation Authority, the Australian Privacy Commissioner, police services and the Australian Law Reform Commission, that took part in a "roundtable" inquiry by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs.

Challenge for lawmakers ... The Rolling Spider drone by Parrot. Source: Supplied

The inquiry, which is yet to release its findings, was held following a report by the Privacy Commissioner which highlighted drones and Google Glass spectacles as the key technologies that have caught the community's attention because of the new ways in which personal information can be collected.

Already Australian policy and emergency police forces have employed drones, as have animal rights activists recording footage over private farming land. A media group also flew one over the Christmas Island detention centre.

Internationally, the use of drones by civilians has caused controversy in a range of areas.

In Los Angeles, one man posts popular video footage captured from drones flying over police at checkpoints and traffic spots. He claims his spy footage of police monitors possible abuses of power.

Rangers in Yosemite have banned the use of drones in the national park while hikers in the Grand Canyon have complained of being startled by crashing drones.

In a case that made headlines around the world, a mother and a daughter sun baking at Hermosa Beach, California, last year spotted someone using a drone to film them.

The US Federal Aviation Authority estimates there could be 7500 drone hobbyists in the next five years.

The products released by Parrot today are due to hit Australian stores in August.

The Rolling Spider, priced at $139.95, which is controlled by a smartphone app, can fly up to 20m from the user and can take digital photographs of objects directly below it. Along with flying, it has detachable wheels that allow it drive across a floor and vertically up a wall.

Parrot also released another app-controlled smart toy, the Jumping Sumo which can leap into the air. It will cost $220.

While the Rolling Spider, which weighs just 55g and is slightly larger than a palm, is likely to be used mainly as a toy, Parrot also owns commercial UAV companies which make unmanned flying vehicles for business applications.

Mr Roberts dismissed reports of flying drones delivering books and pizzas as "publicity trips" but said there were many real-world applications where drones where already being used, from surveying in mining to security in warehouses.

"Where's it going. Who knows?" Mr Robers said. "There's always a new application that comes up."

The Parrot Rolling Spider is an ultra-compact drone controlled by smartphone. It flies indoors and outdoors with surprising speed and stability.