DJI forces you to login or else you cannot fly your drone above 50ft and 50 ft away??? What?

[Felix le Chat]

You said it better than me!
Of course no one is sitting and actively watching. But it's a Pandora box waiting to be opened.

There seems to be a recurring theme in quite a few of my replies to posts this last week or so, no-one has mentioned it outright yet, Yorkshire Pud hinted at it: but here it is in the plain. Local Data Mode (LDM). With older drones (GO4 Mavics etc.) you can cripple all external connectivity INCLUDING the app using your phone to send coarse/acquisition GPS data.

With FLY app drones you have the same option, but the app does not give you the option to block the phone GPS from transmitting the position of the controller (you can thank non-DJI RID requirement pressures for that one)

Turn LDM on. Turn 'airplane mode' on in your phone settings, or better still, use a sim-less tablet with WiFi switched off. If you're logged in BEFORE you engage LDM, the app CAN'T log you out.

And if you think there is still anything vaguely resembling privacy in any form of electronic communication: look up the history of a little entity named GCHQ.

 

[qwerty53]

There seems to be a recurring theme in quite a few of my replies to posts this last week or so, no-one has mentioned it outright yet, Yorkshire Pud hinted at it: but here it is in the plain. Local Data Mode (LDM). With older drones (GO4 Mavics etc.) you can cripple all external connectivity INCLUDING the app using your phone to send coarse/acquisition GPS data.

With FLY app drones you have the same option, but the app does not give you the option to block the phone GPS from transmitting the position of the controller (you can thank non-DJI RID requirement pressures for that one)

Turn LDM on. Turn 'airplane mode' on in your phone settings, or better still, use a sim-less tablet with WiFi switched off. If you're logged in BEFORE you engage LDM, the app CAN'T log you out.

And if you think there is still anything vaguely resembling privacy in any form of electronic communication: look up the history of a little entity named GCHQ.

Thank you finally someone gave an actual advice. Will try that

 

[Meta4]

I am a VP of Software Engineering. I know exactly how it can be done.

Are you Elise Stefanik?
No matter what you are VP of, you are quite clearly completely ignorant of how your drone works, what it does and what it cannot do.
But you make up for those deficiencies with a paranoid imagination.
How do you think DJI is tracking you?
Your drone doesn't transmit anything to DJI.
DJI have no idea where or when you fly (unless you choose to upload your data to their server.
DJI don't care where or when you fly ... you aren't that special.

Sorry to bring it but also my high school son that is not technical at all.

Huh?
I guess that makes as much sense as anything else you've written.

 

[Cafguy]

You Do know that Your phone tracks you, and that Device "Tracks" more info than any drone could. I mean really - The components in your phone are made in China BUT thats here nor there.
Facebook did it for the same reason as APPLE or Samsung: To sell this information to companies that could make money from you. SURE your stored flight records could be obtained by the Government thru the courts and I am sure DJI would comply if they even did that BUT We live in America and You have to break the law with the Drone BEFORE that can happen.
The CCP could care less if you walk into Target twice a week, The folks over at places like Walmart or Lowes or Albertsons well They do.

 

[Meta4]

No one is ACTIVELY tracking you. But the information is there when "someone" might need it.

What information is where?

 

[Meta4]

SURE your stored flight records could be obtained by the Government thru the courts and I am sure DJI would comply if they even did that

Where are you imagining that your flight records are stored?
If you think that DJI has them, how do you think that got them?

 

[qwerty53]

Where are you imagining that your flight records are stored?
If you think that DJI has them, how do you think that got them?

Yes. No doubt, if i am forced to sign in. They need to know who i am. But it's ok. Thank you for your help answering my question (and bunch of other)

 

[Meta4]

No one is ACTIVELY tracking you. But the information is there when "someone" might need it.

I asked you:
What information is where?
It sounds like you mistakenly believe that DJI has your flight data.
How do you imagine they got access to it?

 

[Cafguy]

Where are you imagining that your flight records are stored?
If you think that DJI has them, how do you think that got them?

I have not used it but there is an option to store your flight records I Think?, Isnt that the service DJI has just said they would stop providing in the U.S.?

 

[Meta4]

I have not used it but there is an option to store your flight records I Think?, Isnt that the service DJI has just said they would stop providing in the U.S.?

You can upload your flight data to DJI if you choose to (or you could previously in the USA).
But unless you choose to do that, there is no way for DJI to have access to your flight data.
No way at all.
So when you said: SURE your stored flight records could be obtained by the Government thru the courts and I am sure DJI would comply if they even did ... that was wrong.

 

[DARKSeifer]

You just need to log in once unless you uninstall the app and reinstall it. You don't need an active connection to fly your drone.

I always fly with the controller/phone in airplane mode to prevent interference with the Wi-Fi signal. And in the case of the Rc Pro I connect it to the Wi-Fi now and then so it can upload the logs to DJI so Airdata can collect them.

Unlike Google, Zuckemberg and Apple, DJI give a crap about any private data that there can be on the logs, they don't make money from it. The logs are useful to DJI for their own usage statistics and mean time between failures, and are useful to you for the same reason.

People with Alexa/Google assistant and a smartphones that are meant (and you give explicit permission by accepting the terms of use) to track you 24/7 (real time audio, images, GPS location, emails, passwords, network accounts, chats) complaining about the logs of a flying camera that everyone flies sporadically.

 

[qwerty53]

Why. He is a former President and IF he wins the election He is just the person that sits at the top of a FREE and JUST country.
IF the U.S. Government intercepts your private Data from some secret transmission from your Drone and uses that data against you AT THAT TIME I will stand with you and wave my flag of impeachment. along with thousands of others I am sure. Until then I don't really see this big American Revolution The media would have you believe nor do I see Trump on an M1 Abrams shouting decrees to the people and getting his way. The government cant fix a pothole on main street what on earth do you think they will do with any of your Data---Besides lose it.

So you are saying "DO buy a Vaseline but hope the other other party doesn't have an er...tion" gottya

 

[qwerty53]

I asked you:
What information is where?
It sounds like you mistakenly believe that DJI has your flight data.
How do you imagine they got access to it?

Here it is and this will be my last reply to this thread. Thanks all for your great help.
@metaAs soon as there is a link between your profile and the flight data especially in none G airspace where you have to provide your data to the faa to receive and authorization (hopefully everyone does because it's one of the only needed rules they set).
Now you ask how. This is how. That link which might be your user ID as primary key if they use RDB has a foreign key link to the JASON that they probably have representing the data (doesnt matter, any structured format). This all is uploaded without your direct consent but with your indirect consent (you did agree to allow communication when started the app the first time, otherwise it "might not work properly"). The only thing that the "upload to cloud" button does is allows you to view the data that's already in the cloud. I can go to much greater tech detail but you don't need that.
Now, some granny neighbour sees your drone and intimidated by it reports you to FAA that you flew above her and that you also flew let's say above crowd (4th of July known gathering) and also you flew above moving cars (I am just coming up with scenarios.
Now someone has the proof of your wrong doing (idonno maybe a gust of wind sent your mini over bunch of people or a road for quick second). Do I need to continue?

 

[Meta4]

Do I need to continue?

No ... but if you just answer the simple questions that I've asked a few times, it would be a start.

What information is where?
It sounds like you mistakenly believe that DJI has your flight data.
How do you imagine they got access to it?

 

[Meta4]

Whats the point of their small stinking drones if they track you anyways?

As I thought, you can't/won't answer the basic questions I asked.
Those questions go the heart of your incorrect assertion that DJI or their drones are somehow tracking you.

You only joined a week ago and come in here, all guns blazing, telling anyone who challenges your statement that they don't know what they are talking about.
But it's you that made some invalid assumptions to base your paranoid ideas on.

DJI and their drones are not tracking you.
DJI has no idea at all of your flying unless you choose to upload the flight data after the flight.
If you really want to, keeping your flight data private is the easiest thing to do.

 

[mark.pinskey]

Calm down .. things aren't as bad as you are saying.
I always fly without internet connection and manage without the issues you have imagined.

You are imagining things that are not happening.
DJI isn't tracking you.
Perhaps drone flying isn't for you.
You should give up your mobile phone and look for another hobby.

Absolutely, we would worry a a whole lot more of our smart phone tracking us and everything we do before we even think about DJI….Take a look at the background apps on your iPhone or Android. Can you really figure out what each is doing and when….Dont worry, be happy!

 

[Cafguy]

O.k. So what you are saying is that there is a Drone company in China that is spying on us? Perhaps they have a huge server farm hidden away somewhere? PLUS The U.S. Government has a secret division of people that deciminate some sort of data from a drone and then use that Data to imprison you without cause? perhaps they have an office next to that hanger full of Black helicopters that the reptilian alien Government uses to further their goal to enslave us all.
Lets come down to reality here. I too am curious as to what info of yours is so valuable that no-one else in the world can know Because everything else you do is already known by countless people and companies. and you are tracked 24/7 by the devices you carry and many other sources.
If you think we still live in a world that has "privacy" I suggest to you that you are living life as if you where in the 1980's.

 

[Starz]

this will be my last reply to this thread.

Thanks.

 

[hagman23]

You do not have to log in frequently. Perhaps once every three months (I think). That said, I have never been logged out therefore never needed to log back in.

I’ve been logged out a number of times and it’s a pain in the backside when you fly in areas without cell service like I do quite often.

 

[tstr14]

This thread is pretty funny - in my not so humble opinion. If someone wants to waste the time and resources tracking me, so be it. If I didn't want to be tracked, I would own a 15 year old car and no cell phone or computer of any kind. Oh, and I'd buy aluminum foil by the truck load.

If someone/company wants to waste the time and resources to track my boring but completely legal life history, so be it. They will die of boredom long before they find anything exciting about me.