Drone Maker D.J.I. May Be Sending Data to China, U.S. Officials Say

[Rcough]

The allegations could not be independently confirmed but you wonder!
Drone Maker D.J.I. May Be Sending Data to China, U.S. Officials Say

Could not help but think about the possibility myself.

 

[Former Member]

Stop digging it will get embarrassing.

well, i extremely dislike the idea of having a combination of the stock battery on top of the external 'raw' lipo connected like that - if that is what i see in there on the picture.
you have real chances here to end up with a lipo fire.

people who use such solution do set parameters to ignore any intelligent battery features and use external battery voltage sensors to control the status of the external power source.
they also remove stock battery completely first and only plug in external ones. or - what i saw - they remove all cells from the stock battery and only keep in there the board with sensors. but, to have both..,.
just plugging it like that, blindly, will not do any good and may fry your stock lipo. you typically only set in parallel absolutely identical lipos, same C rating, same capacity. you absolutely do not want one battery pushing wild current into other battery if they are not identical - a smaller one will most likely explode.

if you really into extended flight time using safe methods - there was one seller on the alibaba who had custom made double capacity intelligent batteries, made by taking actual stock batteries, and 'merging' them to double count of cells.

i really do not know what you will get with such adapter. dji uses high voltage cells of a different chemistry compared to usual lipos one can buy - dji charges to 17.6 something V, a usual 4S lipo charges only up to to 16.8V.
it will not like at all being connected to a 17.6V source. do it all at your own risk.

if you do not know how a 5000mah 4S lipo burns - you may want to check it out online first. it has a lot of lithium in it, it is quite intense.

also, people who do such mods are doing it mostly to set record flight hover times - they disable all other features. such hacks/stunts are not really compatible with a normal usual usage of those drones. you can put 2 5000mah bricks on the mavic 2 and it will hover with it, but, do not expect it to fly normally like this. it is built in the optimal configuration by the factory. extra weight will be reducing flying characteristics while gaining not much extra time.

Have you seen many lipo fires caused by mismatched batteries?

Sometimes it takes alot of digging to get to the truth.

 

[bsun357]

The thought that China wants your drone information is totally SILLY, A look at Goggle maps gives anyone more information that a 1000 our our drones.

 

[Former Member]

The thought that China wants your drone information is totally SILLY, A look at Goggle maps gives anyone more information that a 1000 our our drones.

Not everyone thinks so.

The Army Grounds Its DJI Drones Over Security Concerns

 

[sar104]

The thought that China wants your drone information is totally SILLY, A look at Goggle maps gives anyone more information that a 1000 our our drones.

Google doesn't provide up-to-date, high-resolution images though. However - while drones could be used for that purpose, it likely wasn't the primary concern. They had started to use various DJI aircraft in sensitive areas, and were clearly concerned that flight data, if uploaded, might be used to infer other information. It's a reasonable concern, even if it is quite easily prevented.

 

[wco81]

Where would the data be sent from?

The drones themselves or the data logged to the DJI app. running on the mobile devices?

If the latter, it is a concern, because a lot of shady apps. have been found to be sending such data.

For instance, a company selling smart phones in Finland was found to have been sending phone activation data to China with the unique device identifier info among the data they sent.

Even if the nature of the data is benign, you have to consider that it is a vector for sending data.

The administration has been trying to get countries to avoid using Huawei networking gear as the 5G rollout starts. Huawei denies that they spy on behalf of the Chinese govt. but they do not have a good record.

Meanwhile, China engages in massive industrial espionage and also spying on its own citizens. So them having additional access to cameras looking over countries outside US has to be considered a concern. Sure they probably have satellites to monitor infrastructure. But how about cameras that record people below?

 

[PWIdmayer]

The allegations could not be independently confirmed but you wonder!
Drone Maker D.J.I. May Be Sending Data to China, U.S. Officials Say

Just gonna say it -- DUH. We are all agents for the foreign government. But once you fly a drone your hooked and can't stop. I don't think my flying would be of any interest to any government on the planet.Seriously I knew someone would say this eventually.

 

[Dizzy1971]

Every single DJI drone collects data as to its whereabouts, attitudes, and incidents. It is stored internally. When you send a drone in for a repair, thats what DJI looks at. DJI is in China. The Chinese government can access any data from DJI at any time, unlike in the USA where it takes a grand jury subpoena or warrant. If we were to try doing to China what DJI is doing to us, there would be a war.

Truth there my friend! China is on a single minded march to become the worlds dominant power,they make no attempt to hide that fact . Actually they are proud of it! ....kind of like how the USA used to be proud of their own influence in the world..except with quite different values. I still really enjoy my Mavic,but I do so with the assumption that the Chinese government will absolutely have access to any of the flight data if they choose to see it. Sux that we’re there.

 

[Meta4]

Truth there my friend! China is on a single minded march to become the worlds dominant power,they make no attempt to hide that fact . Actually they are proud of it! ....kind of like how the USA used to be proud of their own influence in the world..except with quite different values. I still really enjoy my Mavic,but I do so with the assumption that the Chinese government will absolutely have access to any of the flight data if they choose to see it. Sux that we’re there.

This kind of comment is just ignorant of what's actually in the recorded flight data.
If knowledge of which parks, beaches and backyards are used for flying drones is strategically important, DJI is sitting on a motherlode of valuable information to guide an invasion attempt.

 

[Former Member]

This kind of comment is just ignorant of what's actually in the recorded flight data.
If knowledge of which parks, beaches and backyards are used for flying drones is strategically important, DJI is sitting on a motherlode of valuable information to guide an invasion attempt.

I am a history buff (in addition to being an expert drone repairman lol)

When one country goes to invade another country, what are the 1st targets that the invading country aims at? To neutralize the defending country's defenses. Since so much modern weaponry is computer based, any invasion would not be complete without 1st hacking and debilitating the defenders computers and networks.

That being said, if I were involved in a tense relationship with an adversarial country as the United States is in the South China sea with China as well as N. Korea, any attempt at hacking my computers by my adversary would be considered nothing short of critical.

 

[Dizzy1971]

This kind of comment is just ignorant of what's actually in the recorded flight data.
If knowledge of which parks, beaches and backyards are used for flying drones is strategically important, DJI is sitting on a motherlode of valuable information to guide an invasion attempt.

Actually u kind of missed my point. Which was simply that yes the government of China does in fact have a ridiculously deep and comprehensive control of literally every company’s property which chooses to do business in China. I know what is in the flight data. That’s not my point. My point is simply that the Chinese government has access to it. Period. Nobody was talking about “invasions” Who knows how China or any other country uses the data,but it’s naive to to think they can’t possibly have any “not” altruistic use for it.

 

[Bob4131]

I am not worried the Chinese have access to my flights around my brother-in-law's farm.
That being said, a group recently announced they were able to follow secret NATO manuveors by tracking solders' social media presence - that was a surprise.
Regarding the Chinese, my boss met with a VP at Huawei in the 2000 timeframe. The VP was a Chinese Army General (still in the military) that spent the entire 6 hour meeting explaining how China would defeat the US instead of discussing the technical / business aspects of a microprocessor which was supposed to be the reason for the meeting. Since then, I have seen various examples where the Chinese use their companies to further their government / Army's interests. I certainly would advocate no DJI use in the US military or other government agencies with sensitive information.
PS Truman stated his reason to use the atomic bomb was the save the million US solders' lives that were expected to be lost with a direct invasion of Japan.
Bob

 

[Former Member]

I am not worried the Chinese have access to my flights around my brother-in-law's farm.
That being said, a group recently announced they were able to follow secret NATO manuveors by tracking solders' social media presence - that was a surprise.
Regarding the Chinese, my boss met with a VP at Huawei in the 2000 timeframe. The VP was a Chinese Army General (still in the military) that spent the entire 6 hour meeting explaining how China would defeat the US instead of discussing the technical / business aspects of a microprocessor which was supposed to be the reason for the meeting. Since then, I have seen various examples where the Chinese use their companies to further their government / Army's interests. I certainly would advocate no DJI use in the US military or other government agencies with sensitive information.
PS Truman stated his reason to use the atomic bomb was the save the million US solders' lives that were expected to be lost with a direct invasion of Japan.
Bob

Harry was a good man.

 

[LazyBird]

China, USA, UK and many other countries collect data, information and intelligence from around the world using numerous sources, sources perhaps we aren’t even aware of! So what strategic value would data from our drones be to anyone; except for marketing and product development?

As long as i’m not flying my drone in areas or close to facilities of strategic importance, I wouldn’t pay much attention to such (catchy) news. But what about the possibility of these machines becoming aware (Terminator trilogy)? Now that would have me worried!

 

[Meta4]

As long as i’m not flying my drone in areas or close to facilities of strategic importance, I wouldn’t pay much attention to such (catchy) news.

Even if you were, the idea of your drone being an agent of espionage is more worthy of a plotline from a Scooby Do cartoon than something to take seriously.

 

[Simmo]

I took this photo, which clearly shows that an Aircraft carrier, or submarine could not access this strategic river...
Then again, Google or any measure of marine mapping apps coulda shown the same.... Mines just prettier....

 

[Former Member]

Even if you were, the idea of your drone being an agent of espionage is more worthy of a plotline from a Scooby Do cartoon than something to take seriously.

As far as you know. It's what people don't know that's the disturbing part. The army evidently did know.

 

[Former Member]

China, USA, UK and many other countries collect data, information and intelligence from around the world using numerous sources, sources perhaps we aren’t even aware of! So what strategic value would data from our drones be to anyone; except for marketing and product development?

As long as i’m not flying my drone in areas or close to facilities of strategic importance, I wouldn’t pay much attention to such (catchy) news. But what about the possibility of these machines becoming aware (Terminator trilogy)? Now that would have me worried!

But what if you were flying your drone in an area of strategic value? That's the big question. Nobody knows what areas are strategically valuable to the Chinese government.

 

[Meta4]

But what if you were flying your drone in an area of strategic value? That's the big question. Nobody knows what areas are strategically valuable to the Chinese government.

What if?
What do you suppose the sneaky foreigners could ever get from your drone, whether you are flying around a strategically valuable site or a school playing field?
Some GPS data showing where your flight went, details of your speed and altitude along with your joystick inputs, battery levels, pitch, roll and yaw numbers.
In other words, nothing of any strategic value to anyone.
The idea that DJI or their spymasters search through millions of images and videos, looking for the occasional strategic gem is laughable.
The success rate of that would be something like 1 in a million ..... except that your image files and videos don't find their way from your drone to DJI's servers at all.
Your drone can only transmit to your controller and none of them can transmit to China.
If you don't want to share your flight data, you don't and DJI never sees it.
Outside of a Scooby Do cartoon, you won't find such a ludicrous concept.
It really doesn't stand up to any serious analysis.

 

[Former Member]

What if?
What do you suppose the sneaky foreigners could ever get from your drone, whether you are flying around a strategically valuable site or a school playing field?
Some GPS data showing where your flight went, details of your speed and altitude along with your joystick inputs, battery levels, pitch, roll and yaw numbers.
In other words, nothing of any strategic value to anyone.
The idea that DJI or their spymasters search through millions of images and videos, looking for the occasional strategic gem is laughable.
The success rate of that would be something like 1 in a million ..... except that your image files and videos don't find their way from your drone to DJI's servers at all.
Your drone can only transmit to your controller and none of them can transmit to China.
If you don't want to share your flight data, you don't and DJI never sees it.
Outside of a Scooby Do cartoon, you won't find such a ludicrous concept.
It really doesn't stand up to any serious analysis.

You keep repeating the same arguments. Just because you say it a million times doesn't make it any more true than the 1st time you said it. DJI was hacking people's data and the Armys data. They got caught. The army erased all traces of anything DJI on their systems. That's the facts.

You can speculate all you want, but your speculation amounts to nothing more than some wild guesses, unfounded answers, and what seems to be an obtuse allegiance to DJI. That should be noted as well. I have no allegiance but to my country. You talk as if DJI has done no wrong, but history has proven differently.