I built a free, privacy-friendly tool to make drone flights more transparent in Europe

[nikocaignie]

Hi everyone,

I’m a drone pilot from Belgium and over the past year I had several police checks during perfectly legal flights — usually because residents didn’t know what the drone was doing and got worried.

It made me realise how often misunderstandings come from lack of context.
So I built a small, free and privacy-friendly web tool:
https://www.drone-check.eu

It allows any pilot (professional or recreational) to:

• log their planned or ongoing flight
• get a public link + QR code they can share or post on location
• keep everything anonymous if they want
• avoid unnecessary confusion with residents or authoritie

The platform stores no personal data and automatically deletes flights older than 7 days.
It works across the entire EU and is made as a community tool, not a commercial project.

I’m sharing it here in case it’s useful for others.
Feedback from pilots is very welcome — especially from other EU countries.
Thanks for checking it out,
Niko

My latest encounter with the police!
Nothing bad, just always time consuming ;-)

 

[mavic3usa]

Let us know if it works. From past experience, it seems the people that would care to look up this information to begin with actually don't care if you fly so why would they go there? And the people that don't want you to fly don't really care if you publicly log your details, they just want you to stop which is why they call the police.

Might be different in your country so I'm genuinely interested to know if this works. Can you tell when visitors check and acknowledge the data? Can you tell if it's working by collecting feedback from visitors? Do you have a way to send a link to the police with your details should the flyer wish to "notify" the police prior hoping to avoid an encounter in the field or sending their details during an encounter? I guess you can send the QR code.

In America, the police would use your database to go find flyers when they get bored. They would also probably sweep your database and collect the information for permanent "safe-keeping." No American would voluntarily post their flight details in a public open database, that's asking for trouble since nothing good will come of it. We have remote ID so there's no legal need for it.

Thanks for sharing; looks cool. Maybe someone can use it to find good places to fly.

 

[nikocaignie]

Let us know if it works. From past experience, it seems the people that would care to look up this information to begin with actually don't care if you fly so why would they go there? And the people that don't want you to fly don't really care if you publicly log your details, they just want you to stop which is why they call the police.

Might be different in your country so I'm genuinely interested to know if this works. Can you tell when visitors check and acknowledge the data? Can you tell if it's working by collecting feedback from visitors? Do you have a way to send a link to the police with your details should the flyer wish to "notify" the police prior hoping to avoid an encounter in the field or sending their details during an encounter? I guess you can send the QR code.

In America, the police would use your database to go find flyers when they get bored. They would also probably sweep your database and collect the information for permanent "safe-keeping." No American would voluntarily post their flight details in a public open database, that's asking for trouble since nothing good will come of it. We have remote ID so there's no legal need for it.

Thanks for sharing; looks cool. Maybe someone can use it to find good places to fly.

Hi,

A very valid point — but with this tool I’m trying to break through the impasse. In Europe we’re dealing with a climate of panic because unidentified drones are appearing around sensitive and military areas. I won’t go into who or what is behind that, but it does create extra fear and leads to more people calling the police when they see a regular, fully legal drone flight somewhere else.
We also have remote ID but all that information isn't publicly accessible. The information and assurance to the big public that it's just a guy/girl filming a sunset or doing heir job instead of a Privacy or safety violation.

Every encounter that I had with the police because of that was in a positive and respectfull manner. But it sure is time consuming. ANd sometimes you miss the gap in weather or timing you needed for the job.

About privacy:
Everything can be done anonymously, including sharing data with third parties.

Here is a clearer explanation:

How does privacy work?
You choose what becomes public. If “Show my name publicly” is enabled, your contact details appear on the public flight page. If it’s disabled, your flight is simply listed as Anonymous operator.

How does the email confirmation work?
If you enter an email address (or add/change one later), you’ll receive a confirmation message with a private management link for your flight. This does not affect your optional anonymity on the public map. It only ensures that you can update or adjust your flight later if needed.

What happens to my contact information?
Your contact details are only used to send you your private edit link. They are never shown publicly unless you explicitly enable that option.

More detailed information can be found here:
https://www.drone-check.eu/#howtopilots

Thanks for you feedback and positive approach!