The US government is testing high-altitude balloons manufactured by Sierra Nevada to conduct surveillance over American soil. The Pentagon is testing the new system that will be used only over the American soil for security purposes. The tests have been requested by the US Southern Command (Southcom), an Agency responsible for disaster response, intelligence operations and security cooperation in the Caribbean and Central and South America. Privacy advocates and American Civil Liberties Union expressed their dissent for any form of wide-area surveillance, including this one.”]
Source: https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/89393/intelligence/high-altitude-balloons-surveillance.html