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A few hours after dark one evening earlier this month, a small quadcopter drone lifted off from the parking lot of Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, Israel. It soon trained its built-in camera on its target, a desktop computer's tiny blinking light inside a third-floor office nearby.

The US government agency's suggested regulations won't let Amazon deliver packages, but they generally make it very easy for businesses to use drones. After years of caution, the Federal Aviation Administration now proposes to dramatically lower barriers affecting commercial drones in US airspace.

The drone, called Aquila, is the baby of Facebook's year-old Connectivity Lab. The lab has been developing new technology as part of the social network's mission to "connect everybody in the world." Four billion people don't have access to the Internet, and 10% of the world's population lacks the necessary infrastructure to get online.

In 2014, Google bought Titan Aerospace, maker of high altitude, solar-powered drone aircraft. At the time Google noted, "It's still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation."