DJI Aeroscope / pilot identification

[Levgit]

Hey there
I have some general questions about aeroscope & how DJI handles user-/device ID.

1. If I buy a DJI drone online, does the shop/DJI know the device ID of the drone/controller?
2. If I've activated my drone with my DJI account, but then removed it to sell it and the buyer links it to his account, does DJI still know that the drone was linked to my account?
3. Will DJI provide this information (where the drone was sold, previous owner...) to find the pilot of a drone that, according to the aeroscope-logs of one of their customers, did an illegal flight?

I asked myself these questions when I read about the guy in Singapore who flew near a military airbase and was detected by aeroscope. If he had not registered his drone, how would they've found him? Digging further into it, it seems like pilots are only getting caught on scene, when they upload clips of their flights to social media or the drone/pilot is registered and thus found by the drone ID picked up by aeroscope.

 

[Vic Moss]

Hey there
I have some general questions about aeroscope & how DJI handles user-/device ID.

1. If I buy a DJI drone online, does the shop/DJI know the device ID of the drone/controller?

Aeroscope reads the s/n and locations. It doesn't know who is flying the drone. It has the capability of seeing the email address of the account tied to that drone, but that's not allowed in the US. Early version has that, but later updates made that untraceable.

1. If I've activated my drone with my DJI account, but then removed it to sell it and the buyer links it to his account, does DJI still know that the drone was linked to my account?

It shows up as the person who has it tied to their account.

1. Will DJI provide this information (where the drone was sold, previous owner...) to find the pilot of a drone that, according to the aeroscope-logs of one of their customers, did an illegal flight?

No. They only give that information to law enforcement.

I asked myself these questions when I read about the guy in Singapore who flew near a military airbase and was detected by aeroscope. If he had not registered his drone, how would they've found him? Digging further into it, it seems like pilots are only getting caught on seen, when they upload clips of their flights to social media or the drone/pilot is registered and thus found by the drone ID picked up by aeroscope.

Aeroscope shows the location of the home point and pilot. Singapore laws may be different and it allows email address to be seen by Aeroscope.

 

[simsurf]

Hey there
I have some general questions about aeroscope & how DJI handles user-/device ID.

1. If I buy a DJI drone online, does the shop/DJI know the device ID of the drone/controller?
2. If I've activated my drone with my DJI account, but then removed it to sell it and the buyer links it to his account, does DJI still know that the drone was linked to my account?
3. Will DJI provide this information (where the drone was sold, previous owner...) to find the pilot of a drone that, according to the aeroscope-logs of one of their customers, did an illegal flight?

I asked myself these questions when I read about the guy in Singapore who flew near a military airbase and was detected by aeroscope. If he had not registered his drone, how would they've found him? Digging further into it, it seems like pilots are only getting caught on scene, when they upload clips of their flights to social media or the drone/pilot is registered and thus found by the drone ID picked up by aeroscope.

Not breaking the law would seem to be the best course of action.

 

[Aerophile]

I asked myself these questions when I read about the guy in Singapore who flew near a military airbase and was detected by aeroscope...

Got a link to news about that guy in Singapore? First I've heard about this...

 

[Levgit]

Got a link to news about that guy in Singapore? First I've heard about this...

Here is the original case: dronedj.com
...and another case I've just found: straitstimes.com

Does anybody know other cases (outside of Singapore) where aeroscope helped to find a pilot?

 

[offtheback]

Here is the original case: dronedj.com
...and another case I've just found: straitstimes.com

Does anybody know other cases (outside of Singapore) where aeroscope helped to find a pilot?

I was located by Aeroscope in Massachusetts USA.2 friendly state police came over and made sure I knew about regulations regarding flying over people.I know+I didn't fly over.

 

[PHZ]

I can’t imagine what they would do to you for flying a drone near a military base in Singapore when they handed this out for chewing gum. Put out your eyes?

Teen-Ager Caned in Singapore Tells of the Blood and the Scars (Published 1994)

www.nytimes.com

 

[Aerophile]

Here is the original case: dronedj.com
...and another case I've just found: straitstimes.com

Does anybody know other cases (outside of Singapore) where aeroscope helped to find a pilot?

Thanks. Thought-provoking, eh?

 

[Lokinator]

Very interesting.

 

[Aerophile]

Yeah, 37,000 interesting reasons.

 

[gigalomaniacs]

I don't believe DJI would cooperate with local police, and report some malicious flying
They don't even have the correct geo fence on the map
but in China that might be true

 

[droncek]

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[Cymru]

Worth noting that its now established fact that DJI lied about the data being encrypted, the UUID, locations and all that detail are sent on the datastream unencrypted.

That means you don't need Aeroscope - anyone with an SDR and knowledge of the protocol is able to see that information not just public bodies.

 

[PottyMouth312]

Interesting…

 

[Seventh Fairy]

Aeroscope reads the s/n and locations. It doesn't know who is flying the drone. It has the capability of seeing the email address of the account tied to that drone, but that's not allowed in the US. Early version has that, but later updates made that untraceable.

It shows up as the person who has it tied to their account.

No. They only give that information to law enforcement.

Aeroscope shows the location of the home point and pilot. Singapore laws may be different and it allows email address to be seen by Aeroscope.

so does it track the pilot (Me) in real time? I ask because I just got a mavic 3 and it has aero scope, I am worried because the cops in my area are more like corrupt mafia than helpful police.

 

[droncek]

so does it track the pilot (Me) in real time? I ask because I just got a mavic 3 and it has aero scope, I am worried because the cops in my area are more like corrupt mafia than helpful police.

If you disable gps on youre phone before flight (or even fake gps location) then aeroscope cant have info about pilot location, it has a home point location, but if you move away from home point after take off (with gps off) it won't know. They can track flight route and see the point where you land but you will anyway leave that point before they come there.

 

[Cymru]

plus the UUID and serial of the drone.

Also all previous flight history detected so if you make a habit of flying in the same area repeatedly they can generate a heat map of likely operating locations.

Note this isnt restricted to Aeroscope - any third party with a suitable SDR can access that info.

 

[Seventh Fairy]

plus the UUID and serial of the drone.

Also all previous flight history detected so if you make a habit of flying in the same area repeatedly they can generate a heat map of likely operating locations.

Note this isnt restricted to Aeroscope - any third party with a suitable SDR can access that info.

Thank you all for the info so much. The last thing I need is some karen coming at me swinging her purse claiming I'm spying or some other artificial reason just because I'm flying in my yard lol. Thank yall so much for the info : )

 

[bkushner]

I wasn't aware until today that DJI was making Drone Detection systems for the FBI and others to track drones. My Mavic 3 was detected and id'd by the FBI using Aerial Armor and Aerial Armor's main detection system is DJI Aeroscope. DJI Aeroscope | Premier DJI Drone Detection Technology | Aerial Armor

Kind of like the guy who invented radar inventing the radar detector and cashing in on both sides of the coin. They knew everything, where I was standing, where I flew, how I flew who I was etc... Without disclosing pertinent information, I was not in any trouble nor did anything wrong, however as someone who frequents these forums I had no idea that this ability of tracking was already in play.

 

[Vic Moss]

I wasn't aware until today that DJI was making Drone Detection systems for the FBI and others to track drones. My Mavic 3 was detected and id'd by the FBI using Aerial Armor and Aerial Armor's main detection system is DJI Aeroscope. DJI Aeroscope | Premier DJI Drone Detection Technology | Aerial Armor

Kind of like the guy who invented radar inventing the radar detector and cashing in on both sides of the coin. They knew everything, where I was standing, where I flew, how I flew who I was etc... Without disclosing pertinent information, I was not in any trouble nor did anything wrong, however as someone who frequents these forums I had no idea that this ability of tracking was already in play.

Yep, Aeroscope has been around since 2017. In use publicly since 2018.