Flight logs. Concerned.

[Trollistika]

Anyone else feel a bit uneasy with dji keeping logs? Just received a update like 2 days ago and now the drone won't fly since there's a baseball game and I'm within the stadium radius ban. The controller asked to put in my phone number and said it will transmit my unit number and then let me fly. Lol. I don't know about this. Im still within the 2 weeks return window and hate to return this zoom drone. Really like it. I can imagine under the right people, someone can access the logs and throw people in deep fines after reviewing log files by A.I. when some dummy illegally flies their drone into a plane one day. Am I being too paranoid?

 

[hactick]

If you wanted up to date real time data on another country's locations and the corresponding GPS coordinates, what better way than to sell a product that the general public would take up and do all the leg work for you and then upload that information to your servers. Let the customers do the spying for you.
Of course the Chinese government would never have any interest in this information.....

 

[Meta4]

Am I being too paranoid?

Yes ... DJI doesn't get to see your flight data unless you choose to upload it to their servers.

 

[Meta4]

If you wanted up to date real time data on another country's locations and the corresponding GPS coordinates, what better way than to sell a product that the general public would take up and do all the leg work for you and then upload that information to your servers. Let the customers do the spying for you.
Of course the Chinese government would never have any interest in this information.....

Really? This makes no sense at all.
You think China uses DJI drones n the hands of users to collect "data on another country's locations and the corresponding GPS coordinates"?
Somehow I think China (and everyone else) can find out where countries are without using drones.

 

[Trollistika]

Well.... our own military [USA] advice to ban these drones about a year ago.

 

[Trollistika]

Reason asked was since all these regulations are coming and it would be dumb for gov agencies not to have access to these logs and then screw everyone. I really hope it's private like a user said here about choosing to upload. Googling lead me to people flying in airplane mode. :ý

 

[RayOZ]

Maybe it's a deterrent, getting people to think twice before flying when there's a TFR in place. If a drone is spotted during an event and someone takes photos, and the photos shows a DJI product, authorities will be contacting DJI to ask for what ever info they have. And since DJI also sells their drones to law enforcement agencies, DJI probably want to play nice.
If you are not breaking any law, and authorities arent contacting DJI for details, it's probably not an issue.
If a drone takes down a plane, and if you have a friend or relative in that plane, you would want the culprit to be found. And if DJI can help identify the culprit, you'd want them to help.
Besides, DJI logging our flight logs is not as bad as Amazon Alexa listening to people's conversation at home.

 

[Trollistika]

So True about Alexa. Also remember the case where a judge ordered have the Alexa recordings? If they can do that with Alexa, I think they can also do it to drones but in flight logs. And YES, one Moran can ruin it for everyone, but I'm more concerned with over reaching and suddenly everyone's logs are in a agencies hands and everyone gets fines for the smallest infractions like entering a edge of a 5 mile zone or National Park. And not on purpose but by miscalculations.

 

[RayOZ]

There'd be thousands of flight logs being uploaded to their servers every day. I don't know if DJI would bother going through them, even if they use a software to do it, so they can be the drone police and snitch on their customers. But if they do, I guess people who did get fined from it would make it known to the wider community and DJI would get a bad press and potentially lose customers, or customers just chose to flight in airplane mode and not upload logs. And if it's a minor infraction and a once off, I dont know if agencies waste time and resources to hunt down the perpetrator to issue them a fine.
A lot of modern cars logs the cars activities; location, speed, etc. I am more than certain Tesla does it, for their 'AI auto pilot improvements', and upload those logs to their servers automatically. I mean, they already do auto software updates when the car is at home. But haven't heard of any news that car companies submitting logs to traffic cops so they can issue fines. I mean, who needs speed cameras when modern car companies are prepared to snitch on their customers. Fingers crossed we are n't heading down that path! If a car had an accident, then authorities would be pulling those logs from the car.

 

[Trollistika]

Good post RayOz, makes sense. Let's cross the fingers and toes that it does not turn ugly for us. Sad to see the Wild Wild West era come to a end. One of my dreams was to fly a drone safely ofcourse above clouds. But not that's extinguished unless I go climb a volcano that's not a national park.

 

[sar104]

Well.... our own military [USA] advice to ban these drones about a year ago.

That's because the Army was using them in somewhat sensitive, if not actually classified, operational work, and were concerned that detailed telemetry, images and video were being transmitted to DJI servers. It was a valid concern, even though there were better ways to address the problem than the blanket ban. They have now figured that out and are starting to use them again.

Anyway - if you are doing classified or secret work with your drone then your concern is probably justified. If not, and you are just worried about China finding out where that baseball game is happening, then you are probably just suffering from some form of paranoia.

 

[Trollistika]

That's because the Army was using them in somewhat sensitive, if not actually classified, operational work, and were concerned that detailed telemetry, images and video were being transmitted to DJI servers. It was a valid concern, even though there were better ways to address the problem than the blanket ban. They have now figured that out and are starting to use them again.

Anyway - if you are doing classified or secret work with your drone then your concern is probably justified. If not, and you are just worried about China finding out where that baseball game is happening, then you are probably just suffering from some form of paranoia.

Ahh... makes sense. But keep in mind, gov has a history of abusing power.

 

[sar104]

Ahh... makes sense. But keep in mind, gov has a history of abusing power.

Right - which government might be abusing which power, in this particular case?

 

[Trollistika]

Non of us know. Just be cautious.

 

[Meta4]

Non of us know. Just be cautious.

Actually a lot of people know .. and there are some paranoid people that don't.
If you don't want DJI to see where you've been flying, don't upload your flight data.
Or if you saw what's actually in in your flight data, you probably wouldn't worry about it at all.

 

[Trollistika]

It's not paranoia imo. It's concerns.

 

[RayOZ]

When your concerns become an obsession, it turns into paranoia.

 

[Meta4]

It's not paranoia imo. It's concerns.

Yours might be, but there are plenty of paranoia about on this topic.
Search a bit and you'll find plenty of information that's quite false.

 

[Trollistika]

You want to lay your trust 100% on all government entities, by all means do it. But some of us will always have concerns.

 

[Meta4]

You want to lay your trust 100% on all government entities, by all means do it. But some of us will always have concerns.

What government entities?
What's the concern about government entities and your flight data?
As I've said a couple of times, if you don't want to share your flight data, it's very easy for you to keep that completely private.
DJI doesn't know anything about your flying and the government knows even less about it.