Say bye bye to DJI being used by any government agency.

[Meta4]

Plenty. Just go sniff the application and see the 50 or so sites in calls home to, including multiple corps, chinese telecoms (and routeddirectly from the gov from here I am sure, kinda like we do), etc. I've posted screenshots of this at least once on this forum.

Lots of apps do similarly for all sorts of reasons.
That's not necessarily any thing to worry about.
But what evidence do you have of the app sending data anywhere?

 

[xman1]

@ac0j - Note that is naive, but more power to ya.

On a more humorous note... You can't buy tin foil anymore so all those guys are so screwed if they used aluminum!

 

[xman1]

Lots of apps do similarly for all sorts of reasons.
That's not necessarily any thing to worry about.
But what evidence do you have of the app sending data anywhere?

Those are outbound connections that the app made. What more evidence do you need? And on first go, it was many MB's before I shut it down.

 

[ac0j]

@ac0j - Note that is naive, but more power to ya.

On a more humorous note... You can't buy tin foil anymore so all those guys are so screwed if they used aluminum!

You are probably right. I should be thanking people that firewall the wifi camera pointed at their driveway for saving the Nation.
If that type of information siphoning scares you. I recommend not looking too far into what your OWN country is doing with your information, and there is lots more of it. It started the day they issued you your social security number.
I really am not going to lose any sleep over China mining for images or whatever you think they are doing, that their satellites are probably doing better.

 

[Meta4]

Those are outbound connections that the app made. What more evidence do you need? And on first go, it was many MB's before I shut it down.

What data would your Mavic have that anyone have any interest in?
How do you manage with things that really do harvest your data like credit cards and mobile phones and Google?

 

[xman1]

You are probably right. I should be thanking people that firewall the wifi camera pointed at their driveway for saving the Nation.
If that type of information siphoning scares you. I recommend not looking too far into what your OWN country is doing with your information, and there is lots more of it. It started the day they issued you your social security number.
I really am not going to lose any sleep over China mining for images or whatever you think they are doing, that their satellites are probably doing better.

The point I was making is it is more serious than tin foil hat ideas. Sure they want to spy on you for many reasons. To disrupt your life in the event of maybe an attack on Taiwan, which will happen by the way.

Speaking of Taiwan, I buy almost no tech made in China. I buy most of my tech from other countries, but once in a while, too good a deal crops up, like my cams.

Some details on why they want to spy on you, and it is not just you individually, but every last American they can: The FBI calls Chinese spies in the US a 'whole of society threat' — here's how to protect yourself

Plenty more articles like that one, including specific warnings about using Chinese cameras if you want it.

 

[ac0j]

The point I was making is it is more serious than tin foil hat ideas. Sure they want to spy on you for many reasons. To disrupt your life in the event of maybe an attack on Taiwan, which will happen by the way.

Speaking of Taiwan, I buy almost no tech made in China. I buy most of my tech from other countries, but once in a while, too good a deal crops up, like my cams.

Some details on why they want to spy on you, and it is not just you individually, but every last American they can: The FBI calls Chinese spies in the US a 'whole of society threat' — here's how to protect yourself

Plenty more articles like that one, including specific warnings about using Chinese cameras if you want it.

I prefer that flat earth websites, Alien abduction websites, The moon landing was a hoax sites, and pornography. I dont have the time for any new interests. Thanks though!

 

[xman1]

OK, you cracked me up! Now can I ask how we got distracted with this subject? I thought this was a drone site!

 

[xman1]

What data would your Mavic have that anyone have any interest in?
How do you manage with things that really do harvest your data like credit cards and mobile phones and Google?

Big data man. You put all the data together with all other mavic data and you build one giant picture.

That is also like asking why the DJI app took a picture of me and sent it home, which it did. That I caught and stopped too. Why do they need a picture of me using their app? I blew up DJI's forum about that one and never got an answer.

Maybe ac0j can answer for Apple (I leave Apple devices to my wife as I hate using them, but she likes them), but you can see how much time an app spends on your camera on Android.

Edit here: I find that very creepy.

 

[sar104]

Big data man. You put all the data together with all other mavic data and you build one giant picture.

That is also like asking why the DJI app took a picture of me and sent it home, which it did. That I caught and stopped too. Why do they need a picture of me using their app? I blew up DJI's forum about that one and never got an answer.

I did a similar set of tests last year to see what connections were being made by the basic app, with broadly similar results. Most of those are the map sites, DJI update sites, DJI cloud services and advertising sites. There's nothing particularly surprising in the results. How did they take a picture of you using the app?

 

[ac0j]

Big data man. You put all the data together with all other mavic data and you build one giant picture.

That is also like asking why the DJI app took a picture of me and sent it home, which it did. That I caught and stopped too. Why do they need a picture of me using their app? I blew up DJI's forum about that one and never got an answer.

Maybe ac0j can answer for Apple (I leave Apple devices to my wife as I hate using them, but she likes them), but you can see how much time an app spends on your camera on Android.

I am no apple expert by any means, but now I hope there isnt any holes inside my front pockets, and the camera doesnt work in low light, otherwise there are going to be a bunch of depressed male Chinese government employees.

 

[xman1]

I did a similar set of tests last year to see what connections were being made by the basic app, with broadly similar results. Most of those are the map sites, DJI update sites, DJI cloud services and advertising sites. There's nothing particularly surprising in the results. How did they take a picture of you using the app?

Phone camera.

I am no apple expert by any means, but now I hope there isnt any holes inside my front pockets, and the camera doesnt work in low light, otherwise there are going to be a bunch of depressed male Chinese government employees.

I was almost about to take a drink when I read that. You need to give me more warning as I would have spit it all over my screen!

 

[Meta4]

Big data man. You put all the data together with all other mavic data and you build one giant picture.

Right .. a giant picture that shows people fly frequently from their backyards or local park, maybe some poorly exposed sunsets shots etc, etc.
It's hard to imagine anything of any interest or value.
And how much effort would it require to sift through that big picture just to find that there's nothing of any use in it?

Somehow I don't buy it at all.
I don't hear of people complaining of the gigabytes of data appearing on their phone bills.
I have a hard time imagining that anything of any commercial or espionage value would be discovered if lots of data was siphoned off.
And since it's so easy to be certain your equipment isn't able to share your data, I can't see anyone going to the trouble of trying.

 

[xman1]

MB's is not GB's. Pictures generally fit into 1 to 2 MB, something you will never notice, along with data, flight logs, Personal Information attached to user, location, you name it.

What you do with this information is up to you. I am telling you it is happening. Read the Business Insider article above. It is a good basic understanding of what is going on.

This part is informative I think, especially the part about being naive:
...Bill Bishop, an author who has lived on and off in China for decades and writes the Sinocism newsletter for Axios, tweeted the following: "Entertaining to talk to Chinese engineers with experience with Huawei about whether or not Huawei installs back doors. Unanimous 'Of course' followed by 'how naive are the foreigners who still doubt that.'"

New court documents filed in the US allege that ZTE, another Chinese phone maker, was set up with the express purpose of conducting international espionage.

With a camera, microphone, and the logins of its owners accounts, accessing the smarphones of US citizens would be a massive intelligence boon for any nation.

Public naivety comes up again and again in intelligence circles. In May, the US banned all Chinese-made smartphones from the Pentagon, saying devices from Huawei and ZTE "may pose an unacceptable risk to department's personnel, information and mission."

If the Pentagon is taking seriously the risk of espionage via Chinese-made phones, maybe savvy US citizens should follow suit...

 

[Meta4]

What you do with this information is up to you. I am telling you it is happening. Read the Business Insider article above. It is a good basic understanding of what is going on.

There's nothing in there to change my mind.
My drones have no information worth anything to anyone, unless they appreciate spectacular images.
But they only reside on the SD card until I get home anyway.

 

[ac0j]

It should be Obvious to us dumb Americans. The Huawei and ZTE stuff is made so tempting with the Ghetto low prices, the nice shiney plastic, and the above average performance compared to most chinese android fodder. But they probably lose money on them just to get them in more hands of wealthy, powerful, high ranking Americans. Thus furthering their mission to rule the earth.
What they do not know is that a lot of the "smarter" Americans that dont buy American goods have also figured out how to download apps and stuff from china that "lock down" their private stuff and the Chinese test software that makes sure they did it right says they are safe! They know all this because they read it on the internet!

 

[sar104]

Phone camera.

Why did you give the GO app access to your phone camera?

 

[xman1]

Why did you give the GO app access to your phone camera?

Because I was a newb at the time and I just installed the app and it took those permissions as default. I am not a slow learner though. That is what prompted me to start digging into what else this app was doing and its eventual shut down of any network communication. One of the main reasons I shut it down was I don't want DJI flipping some bit and force an upgrade or no fly situation and I am sure they can do that based on what I see in the code as there is an expiration date in your firmware, if I recall right it is one year after a particular firmware is released, though to my knowldege, they haven't enforced this yet.

Another reason is the white paper from DJI to use a comm channel for drone identification. This was probably integrated into the drone somewhere around firmware 0700 and is why your range slightly decreased, and along with it also came NFZ zones which was marking my house, which is no where near a major airport, as a restricted zone. It also started giving me false warnings about signal range when the drone was probably 50 feet from me when other firmwares did not.

Anyway, most of you think you control your drone. I will be the first to tell you that you do not and that is only an illusion. That doesn't mean you can't take back control of it however.

 

[xman1]

It should be Obvious to us dumb Americans. The Huawei and ZTE stuff is made so tempting with the Ghetto low prices, the nice shiney plastic, and the above average performance compared to most chinese android fodder. But they probably lose money on them just to get them in more hands of wealthy, powerful, high ranking Americans. Thus furthering their mission to rule the earth.
What they do not know is that a lot of the "smarter" Americans that dont buy American goods have also figured out how to download apps and stuff from china that "lock down" their private stuff and the Chinese test software that makes sure they did it right says they are safe! They know all this because they read it on the internet!

Whatever.

 

[xman1]

There's nothing in there to change my mind.
My drones have no information worth anything to anyone, unless they appreciate spectacular images.
But they only reside on the SD card until I get home anyway.

I didn't say stop using your drone. Just be aware of it, and if you want to stop it, you can. Note your drone does have your personal information linked to the account you registered it under, including credit card numbers if you used one for anything at DJI, and you know they were hacked recently.