Amid privacy backlash...

[mikey56]

Sorry, meant to say do the USA trust the Dutch, Swiss more than the Chinese

 

[anotherlab]

Sorry, meant to say do the USA trust the Dutch, Swiss more than the Chinese

It's not a matter of trust as it a matter of liability. If DJI releases an app that provides the name or a address of a drone owner to anyone without legal authorization, they'll get a massive fine from the EU in less time it takes to say "GDPR Compliance".

And while this could go wildly off-topic, no, I do not trust the Chinese. But not because of drones, they already have that technology. I'm more concerned over convert activity by China for their "Made in China 2015" program.

 

[pftarch]

It may be time to find another drone company. This is high tech selling our privacy for their gain, a common story.

Although I am not immediately concerned about DJI "selling" my information, I REALLY don't like what they are doing. I didn't care for Aeroscope and I don't care for this. DJI get's a premium price from us (for a premium product, no doubt about it), and then turns around and sells technology to outside parties to spy on it's customers (Aeroscope). Now they want to carry it a step further.

Imagine if Ford, or Honda, put a sending unit in their cars that allowed ANYONE to see and record the speed, driving habits, and current location of their vehicles. The public outcry would be extreme and sales would plummet.

I try very hard to fly (and drive) legally, however, I doubt that ANYONE on this forum obeys 100% of the rules 100% of the time. The LAST thing that I need is a crazy neighbor calling the police because I drifted up to 410 ft. AGL.

This does NOT endear DJI to me in any way shape or form.

Peter T

 

[Chip]

...Imagine if Ford, or Honda, put a sending unit in their cars that allowed ANYONE to see and record the speed, driving habits, and current location of their vehicles. The public outcry would be extreme and sales would plummet...

Great point! But I would like to add one more fact to the hypothetical: the data base which provides the means to match the vehicle ID to name and address of registered owner is owned and controlled by a private company in China which may provide access to US law enforcement or any third party at its sole discretion regardless of the content of any state's laws or Constitutions which are deemed null and void as vehicles are considered "the means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce" and therefore exclusively regulated by the federal government. The PR slogan is: If you are not a criminal then you have nothing to worry about.

 

[anotherlab]

Great point! But I would like to add one more fact to the hypothetical: the data base which provides the means to match the vehicle ID to name and address of registered owner is owned and controlled by a private company in China which may provide access to US law enforcement or any third party at its sole discretion regardless of the content of any state's laws or Constitutions which are deemed null and void as vehicles are considered "the means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce" and therefore exclusively regulated by the federal government. The PR slogan is: If you are not a criminal then you have nothing to worry about.

It really doesn't matter what the country is. If you put out an app that releases PII about a drone owner and that app is used in a state/country/region with personal privacy protections under the law, then you are facing very real and very expensive fines.

Here's a collection of non-hypothetical fines for violation of the GDPR. DJI could get fined up to €20 million, or up to 4% of the it's annual revenue of the preceding financial year, whichever is greater, if it leaked drone pilot PII.

 

[Photo Booth]

I've have the Flightradar24 app on my iPhone. With it, I can track the location, altitude and speed of any commercial aircraft in the world. It gives me a bunch of information about the flight, including origination and destination locations, airline, and aircraft type. Any private aircraft equipped with the necessary electronics also show up on the Flightradar24 app.

How is that any different than what DJI is proposing?

Flightradar24 doesn't tell me WHO is on the airplane. It only tells me about the aircraft. Similarly, DJI's proposal will only give you information about the aircraft, NOT who is flying it. Yes, that personal information could be determined by anyone that has access to DJI's database of drone serial numbers. But the general public won't have access to the personal information.

BRAVO to DJI for giving law enforcement another tool to crack down on morons that fly their drones in violation of the law and community based standards.

If these morons had never started using drones in the first place, there wouldn't be any need for additional tools for law enforcement. The fewer morons we have at the controls of drones the better.

Mark

 

[mikey56]

hi, yes i agree with you , point taken. did not know such information about flights where so accessible to the public. not a person wishing to know where every plane is flying to and from.

 

[Cloudhopper]

I've have the Flightradar24 app on my iPhone. With it, I can track the location, altitude and speed of any commercial aircraft in the world ...

How is that any different than what DJI is proposing?

This is really a specious comparison.

For one thing, there is a multi billion dollar security industry protecting those flights backed by civilian policing, courts, and even military force if necessary.

Compare that to the civilian drone world where any ( Mod Removed) can take a pop at the uav with a shotgun and drone pilots are regularly harassed. We take all the legal responsibility for our flights but have no protections at all.

 

[sar104]

We take all the legal responsibility for our flights but have no protections at all.

If all, or even the majority of drone pilots flew responsibly and according to the law then we probably wouldn't even be having this discussion.

 

[anotherlab]

...Compare that to the civilian drone world where any jackass can take a pop at the uav with a shotgun and drone pilots are regularly harassed. We take all the legal responsibility for our flights but have no protections at all.

It's because of idiots flying their drones beyond VLOS, flying in prohibited airspace, or into other aircraft (and some cases, all three) that we can't have nice things.

Also, we are in the early days of drones. With commercial drones now able to fly for 2 hours, more companies will be using drones for emergency deliveries, SaR missions, inspections, etc. As they become more common, especially in commercial use, much of the negativity will dissipate. It took a while, but we got used to those horseless carriages.

 

[Photo Booth]

This is really a specious comparison.

For one thing, there is a multi billion dollar security industry protecting those flights backed by civilian policing, courts, and even military force if necessary.

Compare that to the civilian drone world where any jackass can take a pop at the uav with a shotgun and drone pilots are regularly harassed. We take all the legal responsibility for our flights but have no protections at all.

I've not encountered issues with ( Mod Removed ). But then, I don't fly my drone beyond VLOS. If my drone is in the air and somebody sees it, the odds are very high that they can also see me (if they look around for me). Yet, nobody has ever harassed me.

I think the crux of the issue is that some drone pilots are flying in a manner where they deserve to be harassed.

Mark

 

[SpinItUp]

I've encountered (a) JA and would've welcomed it to speed up the process of where thems were situated which happened to be just around the corner but it took me until I reviewed my footage of me flying around searching to find them.
It was the holiday season but the JA was well aware of what they were doing.
I have some crazy footage of low flying over people working on a house by the JA's mate that seemed to be trying out a MA or spark or s'thing and said JA had a MP I think/guess

 

[Chip]

This is really a specious comparison. For one thing, there is a multi billion dollar security industry protecting those flights backed by civilian policing, courts, and even military force if necessary.

Compare that to the civilian drone world where any jackass can take a pop at the uav with a shotgun and drone pilots are regularly harassed. We take all the legal responsibility for our flights but have no protections at all.

Good point. In order to be analogous, the airplane app would take you to public access point at airport or airfield where commercial pilots could be confronted as they exited their planes with no security whatsoever.

 

[SpinItUp]

given-green-light-by-uk
Go

...should be an app in development now then.

 

[anotherlab]

given-green-light-by-uk
Go

...should be an app in development now then.

The UK approval was for DJI's Aeroscope system. The drone remote ID app that they proposed is something completely different.

 

[netsonic]

• DJI said. Using only Wi-Fi, a person could use the app to identify a nearby drone’s identification number, as well as location, altitude, speed, and direction of the drone.
• DJI says its app would work on drones within a 1-kilometer (0.62 mile).

As reference: DJI Demonstrates Direct Drone-To-Phone Remote Identification
“DJI’s drone-to-phone implementation helps accomplish that by allowing drone pilots to broadcast a simple description of their flights, so anyone viewing the smartphone app can understand that they are inspecting a roof, surveying a construction site, or performing another beneficial task with a drone.”

Let's take the Mini for Example and the Fly App. If you go in the settings you can opt to enable, set and broadcast this information or just turn it off.

Here is a example from one of Ken Herons videos where he was using it.

 

[Sky Angels]

Flight Radar 24 App. does the exact same thing.
I use it almost every flight.
It tells a lot of info on every private aircraft in the sky.
Even law enforcement when they choose to light up their ADS-B.

It’s cheap too!

 

[Sky Angels]

Common as a cup of coffee!

No worries people.

 

[AnzacJack]

plenty of DJI drones popping up on Flight Radar 24

 

[SpinItUp]

The UK approval was for DJI's Aeroscope system. The drone remote ID app that they proposed is something completely different.

If you're curious about a drone in the sky, you can identify and track it with a free app. Coming next year, pending regulatory approval.

Yes, but I thought the approval was the same word though, this at least made me pin my ears back