What makes an aerial photo hold up when someone challenges it?

Authority

14 CFR 3.401 - Applicability and definitions · 14 CFR 3.403 - Falsification, reproduction, alteration, or omission · 14 CFR 107.9 - Safety event reporting · EPA 2022 Construction General Permit as modified, effective 8 April 2025 and expiring 16 February 2027 - Parts 4.7, 5.4 and 8.2 · Ley 68-2021 of Puerto Rico, Article 3, codified at 1 L.P.R.A. sec. 933 - unchanged by Ley 62 of 16 July 2025, which amended Article 4

Sources

14 CFR 3.403 - Falsification, reproduction, alteration, or omission (eCFR) · 14 CFR 3.401 - Applicability and definitions (eCFR) · 14 CFR 107.9 - Safety event reporting (eCFR) · EPA 2022 Construction General Permit, as modified (PDF) · Ley 68-2021, consolidated text rev. 12 August 2025, Puerto Rico (PDF, Oficina de Gerencia y Presupuesto)

Verified

6 September 2026

Status

Current

What makes a photo evidence instead of a picture?

A photo becomes evidence when someone who was not there can confirm three things without your help: the date it was taken, the position it was taken from, and that the file has not changed since. Every step on this page exists to make those three checkable by a stranger.Our reading¶

The image is the small part. The record is the image plus the name of the file, the fingerprint written the day it was captured, the flight it belongs to, the report that used it, and the list of everyone who received a copy. A challenge rarely attacks the image itself. It attacks the gap between the image and the record around it.Our reading¶

Three separate bodies of law govern that record on a construction site in Puerto Rico: the federal aviation rule on what a record may leave out, the federal construction stormwater permit — on a site that holds coverage under it — on how long records live and how fast they are written, and Puerto Rico law on what may be retained and shared. Every rule number on this page was read against its source text on 6 September 2026.Our reading¶

Which rule says a record cannot have holes in it?

14 CFR 3.403(c) states that no person may knowingly omit, or cause to be omitted, a material fact in a record, report or similar document submitted under the provisions listed in 14 CFR 3.401.Verbatim¶

Paragraph (c)(2) is the one that reaches records that stay on your own drive. It extends the same prohibition to "Any document in any format that is kept, made, or used to show compliance with any requirement under the provisions referenced in § 3.401" — the aviation rules that section lists. The flight log on your own drive is inside that description, and so is any photo set kept to show an operation was flown the way Part 107 requires. The site inspection report answers to the permit that requires it, on the clocks further down this page.Our reading¶

This prohibition used to live inside Part 107, at 107.5. Since 3 November 2025 that section reads [Reserved]. The rule moved to Part 3 of the same title and picked up a word the old text did not have: omission. Pilots who studied Part 107 and stopped there have the old map.Our reading¶

14 CFR 3.401(a) is what keeps it attached to drone work. It applies by whole subchapters, and it names subchapter F, where Part 107 and Part 89 live, and subchapter C, where aircraft registration lives. The rule left Part 107; it did not leave you.Our reading¶

(c) No person may knowingly omit, or cause to be omitted, a material fact in: (1) Any document in any format, submitted under any provision referenced in § 3.401, consisting of or related to any acceptance, application, approval, authorization, certificate, rating, declaration, designation, qualification, record, report, request for reconsideration, or similar; or

(2) Any document in any format that is kept, made, or used to show compliance with any requirement under the provisions referenced in § 3.401.

(a) This subpart applies to any person subject to the requirements in subchapter A (except parts 1 and 3), subchapter C (except part 39), subchapter D, subchapter E (except parts 71 and 73), subchapter F (except parts 95 and 97), subchapter G (except part 110), subchapter H, and subchapter K (except parts 185, 187, 189, and 193), of this chapter.

What happens to the person who leaves something out?

Under 14 CFR 3.403(d), committing one of these acts is a basis for denying, suspending, modifying, revoking, rescinding, removing or withdrawing any approval, authorization or certificate issued or granted by the Administrator and held by that person, and it is a basis for a civil penalty.Verbatim¶

Read who is named. The prohibition covers the person who omits and the person who causes the omission, so both ends of the conversation are inside it. What separates them is what each one holds. Paragraph (d) reaches whatever approvals, authorizations and certificates that person holds from the Administrator, and on a construction site the certificate belongs to the pilot who flew it and wrote it up.Our reading¶

That turns the question of leaving something out into arithmetic with one answer. Both people are inside paragraph (c). The one holding a remote pilot certificate is the one with a certificate to lose, and anyone who keeps their own record knows that trade in advance.Our reading¶

(d) The commission by any person of an act prohibited under paragraphs (a) through (c) of this section is a basis for: (1) Denying, suspending, modifying, revoking, rescinding, removing, or withdrawing any acceptance, application, approval, authorization, certificate, rating, declaration, designation, qualification, request for reconsideration, or similar, issued or granted by the Administrator and held by that person; or (2) A civil penalty.

How is a file put beyond argument the day it is taken?

You fix a file on the day you take it by naming it before it leaves the memory card, computing a SHA-256 fingerprint of every file, and writing those names and fingerprints into one manifest that travels with the flight from then on.Our reading¶

A SHA-256 fingerprint is a short string of characters computed from the bytes of the file. Change one pixel and the string changes completely. Anyone with the file and free software gets the same string you got, so a manifest written on flight day lets a stranger check, years later, that the file in front of them is the file you captured. It costs seconds per flight and it is the single strongest thing on this page.Our reading¶

Most aircraft write position, altitude and time into each image file. Confirm it on the aircraft you fly, then keep it intact: work from copies and leave the captured files as they came off the card.Unverified¶

The federal permit says the same thing in its own words for the photographs that close a permit: clear, in focus, and in the original format and resolution, with the date and a brief description of the area.Verbatim¶

Naming matters more than it looks. A file named with the site code, the date in YYYY-MM-DD order, the flight number and the frame number sorts itself, survives being copied into somebody else's folder, and still says what it is when it turns up alone in an email three years later.Our reading¶

You must also comply with the following related to these photographs: i. Take photographs both before and after the site has met the final stabilization criteria in Part 2.2.14c; ii. All photographs must be clear and in focus, and in the original format and resolution; and iii. Include the date each photograph was taken, and a brief description of the area of the site captured by the photograph (e.g., photo shows application of seed and erosion control mats to remaining exposed surfaces on northeast corner of site).

1. Set the aircraft clock and the ground station clock before the first flight of the day, and write down the time zone you used.
2. Name every file before it leaves the memory card: site code, date as YYYY-MM-DD, flight number, frame number.
3. Compute a SHA-256 fingerprint of every file and write the names and fingerprints into one plain-text manifest for that flight.
4. Copy the flight folder, manifest included, to a second location the same day.
5. Keep the files as the aircraft wrote them, in original format and resolution, and derive every deliverable from that copy.
6. Write the date and a brief description of the area each set of frames covers, while you still remember it.

What do you do when something in the record turns out to be wrong?

A correction is deposited on top of the original: the new file goes into the archive with its own date, its own fingerprint and a line saying what it corrects, and both layers stay there in the order they arrived.Our reading¶

That is what an append-only archive means in daily practice. The archive grows. The record stands as it was taken, and the correction stands beside it, dated. A reader five years from now sees the first version, sees the second, and sees the day the difference was noticed.Our reading¶

The reason is 14 CFR 3.403(c). An archive that can be tidied after the fact is an archive where somebody chose what a later reader would see, and choosing what a later reader sees is exactly the act the rule names.Our reading¶

There is a commercial reason too, and it is the one that wins arguments. The first question from the other side is who decided what to photograph and on which day. A stacked archive answers with dates and fingerprints, in one line, and every line in it can be checked against the file itself.Our reading¶

How long does the record have to live?

Inspection reports and the corrective action log must be retained for at least three years counted from the date permit coverage expires or is terminated, not three years from the date the report was written.Verbatim¶

Read that clock against a real schedule. On a job whose permit coverage stays open for five years, the report from month one is eight years old before the retention period is finished with it. Storage is budgeted for the length of the permit plus three years, on the day the first flight happens.Our reading¶

A second clock runs much faster and it is the one that shapes the work. The report for any site inspection must be completed within 24 hours of completing that inspection. The deliverable is the flight processed and written up by the next day, which is a decision about equipment and hours before it is a decision about price.Our reading¶

You must complete an inspection report within 24 hours of completing any site inspection.

You must retain all inspection reports completed for this Part for at least three (3) years from the date that your permit coverage expires or is terminated.

You must retain the corrective action log for at least three (3) years from the date that your permit coverage expires or is terminated.

Who gets a copy, and how is that tracked?

The owner of the site decides who receives the record, and every copy that leaves is logged with three fields: what went out, the date it went out, and who received it.Our reading¶

The federal permit sets a floor underneath that. A copy of all inspection reports must be kept at the site or at an easily accessible location so it can be made immediately available during an on-site inspection or on request by EPA. The permit allows those reports to be prepared, signed and kept electronically on three conditions it spells out in the footnote to that Part: the record reads the way a paper record reads, it is legally dependable with no less evidentiary value than paper, and it is immediately accessible to the inspector during an inspection to the same extent a paper copy stored at the site would be. An electronic copy that opens on a phone at the gate is built against that third condition, which makes signal at the gate a design question and not a detail.Our reading¶

Part of the record is built to be handed over, not stored. To close the permit, the operator must submit photographs showing the site met the stabilization requirements, together with the Notice of Termination that ends permit coverage. The permit says in its own words that these may be ground or aerial photographs.Verbatim¶

An export log is also the only way to answer the other question that arrives with a challenge: where did this picture come from and who had it. Three fields per export, written at the time, answers it in a minute.Our reading¶

You must keep a copy of all inspection reports at the site or at an easily accessible location, so that it can be made immediately available at the time of an on-site inspection or upon request by EPA.

Inspection reports may be prepared, signed, and kept electronically, rather than in paper form, if the records are: (a) in a format that can be read in a similar manner as a paper record; (b) legally dependable with no less evidentiary value than their paper equivalent; and (c) immediately accessible to the inspector during an inspection to the same extent as a paper copy stored at the site would be, if the records were stored in paper form.

To document that you have met these stabilization requirements, you must take either ground or aerial photographs that show your site’s compliance with the Part 2.2.14 stabilization requirements and submit them with your NOT.

What about the people who show up in the frames?

Puerto Rico law bars retaining or sharing images of identifiable individuals captured by an unmanned aircraft, outside one narrow exception: the second sentence of Article 3 of Ley 68-2021 provides that such images may not be retained or shared unless there is reasonable suspicion that the image contains evidence of criminal activity or is related to an ongoing investigation or a criminal proceeding pending in the courts.Verbatim¶

On an active construction site there are identifiable people in almost every flight. Read the sentence again and notice what it turns on: the image, and whether a person in it can be identified. The wording addresses the image itself rather than the way the flight was authorized.Our reading¶

That puts two questions in front of the owner of the site, and they belong to the owner's attorney before the first flight, not to the pilot after the hundredth. First: whether the owner's written permission covers the people working there. Second: whether faces are obscured before frames enter the archive, and if so, whether the original frame stays behind the obscured one. The answers change how the archive is built, so they are asked while the archive is still a plan.Our reading¶

The first sentence of the same Article is why written permission is the first page of any record here. Without a search warrant, no person, entity or state agency may use an unmanned aircraft system to conduct surveillance of, collect evidence or information about, or photograph or electronically record specific persons or private property, without their consent. A reasonable expectation of privacy is language from the descriptive caption at the head of the act and from its statement of motives; the prohibition itself turns on consent, and consent is the defense the text of Article 3 offers.Our reading¶

Las imágenes de individuos identificables capturadas mediante la tecnología de un sistema aéreo no tripulado, no podrá ser retenida o compartida a menos que exista una sospecha razonable de que esa imagen contiene evidencia de una actividad criminal o está relacionada con una investigación en curso o pendiente de un proceso criminal en los tribunales.

Images of identifiable individuals captured through unmanned aircraft system technology may not be retained or shared unless there is reasonable suspicion that the image contains evidence of criminal activity or is related to an ongoing investigation or a criminal proceeding pending in the courts.

En ausencia de una orden de registro, ninguna persona, entidad o agencia estatal, utilizará un sistema aéreo no tripulado para llevar a cabo vigilancia de, recolectar evidencia o información acerca de, o fotografiar o electrónicamente grabar, personas o propiedades privadas específicas, sin su consentimiento.

In the absence of a search warrant, no person, entity or state agency shall use an unmanned aircraft system to conduct surveillance of, collect evidence or information about, or photograph or electronically record, specific persons or private property, without their consent.

What happens when a preservation notice or a subpoena arrives?

When a preservation notice, a subpoena or a litigation hold reaches whoever holds the data, the archive freezes exactly as it stands and the notice itself goes into the file with its date and its source.Our reading¶

Two clocks then govern the same files and they pull in opposite directions. One is the federal retention period, which runs three years past the end of permit coverage. The other is any contract clause calling for data to be destroyed when the job ends. Those two are reconciled in writing before the first flight, because after a notice arrives the choice belongs to a court.Our reading¶

Scope is the attorney's call. What the person holding the data owes is a complete archive with dates and fingerprints, and a straight answer about what is in it. That is also the whole argument for building it this way: a record that can be edited on request defends nobody, and the reason it protects the owner of the site is the same reason it stays as taken.Our reading¶

What most people have wrong

Each of these is a thing said confidently in public that the rule does not support. The section number settles it.

1. Part 107 has a falsification rule and it is 107.5.107.5 reads [Reserved]. Since 3 November 2025 the prohibition lives at 14 CFR 3.403, in a different part of the same title, and the new text carries a word the old one did not: omission.14 CFR 107.5 [Reserved]; 14 CFR 3.403(c)
2. The rule moved out of Part 107, so it no longer reaches a drone pilot.3.401(a) applies by whole subchapters. Part 107 and Part 89 sit in subchapter F and aircraft registration sits in subchapter C. Both are inside the list.14 CFR 3.401(a)
3. The search box on eCFR shows the current text.The eCFR search index still returns 107.5 under its old title as though it were in force. Open the section page itself and read the dates printed on it before trusting a search hit.14 CFR 107.5
4. Falsifying is the violation; leaving something out is only an omission.The text prohibits knowingly omitting, or causing to be omitted, a material fact. Omission is named in the rule itself, and so is causing it.14 CFR 3.403(c)
5. The rule only covers what you send in to the FAA.Paragraph (c)(2) reaches any document kept, made or used to show compliance with the provisions § 3.401 lists, which are aviation rules. A log kept in your own files to show an operation was flown the way Part 107 requires is inside that description.14 CFR 3.403(c)(2)
6. The three-year retention period runs from the date of the report.It runs from the date permit coverage expires or is terminated. On a long job the earliest report can be a decade old and still be inside the retention period.EPA 2022 CGP Parts 4.7.4 and 5.4.4
7. Damage to the aircraft counts toward the $500 reporting threshold.107.9(b) measures damage to property other than the small unmanned aircraft. The aircraft's own repair bill sits outside the test.14 CFR 107.9(b)
8. The reporting section is called Accident reporting.It has been titled Safety event reporting since 9 December 2022. The 10 calendar days and the $500 thresholds did not change, but searching the old title finds nothing.14 CFR 107.9
9. Photographs can be delivered as a compressed PDF or through a messaging app.Photographs submitted to close the permit must be clear and in focus, and in the original format and resolution, with the date and a brief description of the area. Anything that re-encodes the file fails that on its own.EPA 2022 CGP Part 8.2.1a.ii and iii
10. An electronic copy on site satisfies the permit by itself.The footnote to Part 4.7.3 sets three conditions for keeping inspection reports electronically: it reads the way a paper record reads, it is legally dependable with no less evidentiary value than paper, and it is immediately accessible to the inspector during an inspection to the same extent a paper copy stored at the site would be.EPA 2022 CGP, footnote 77 to Part 4.7.3
11. Written consent from the owner settles the privacy question for the whole site.The second sentence of Article 3 provides that images of identifiable individuals captured by an unmanned aircraft may not be retained or shared unless there is reasonable suspicion that the image contains evidence of criminal activity or is related to an ongoing investigation or a criminal proceeding pending in the courts. Its wording turns on the image rather than on how the flight was authorized. That question goes to the owner's attorney before the archive is designed.Ley 68-2021, Art. 3

Where this goes next

• Can I legally fly a drone over my job site in Puerto Rico?Article 3 of Ley 68-2021 offers one defense, and it is consent. The first page of any record is that permission.
• What does the EPA construction permit require me to photograph?The permit schedule that produces most of the reports this page tells you how to keep, including the 24-hour trigger.
• What do I need to fly a drone on my own job site in Puerto Rico?What has to be produced on the spot, and which officials can ask for it while you are still flying.

Written by a FAA Part 107 Certified Remote Pilot in western Puerto Rico, and verified on 6 September 2026. Something out of date or wrong on this page? Write and say so — corrections are read and dated.