Chinese drone maker denies giving data to government.
- Thread starter JoeyJoe
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This article has more info. DJI are being accused of a lot of bad things.
U.S. Customs Office Accuses DJI of Spying for China, DJI Denies Charge
U.S. Customs Office Accuses DJI of Spying for China, DJI Denies Charge
Seems possible, with a GPS and hacked internet connection, totally do-able.
Thorough firmware and hardware inspection should tell.
Thorough firmware and hardware inspection should tell.
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Is there a way to block my data from transmitting to DJI whilst still allowing safe flying capability to include firmware updates?
I have a real hard time trusting the Chinese government for some reason. Unfortunately Chinese companies are at least to some degree, at the mercy of their government, no ifs ands or buts, thats just the way it is.
When I went to sign up for the DJI beta program they wanted a photocopy of my driver license. Why would any foreign company want that to join a beta program?
I've had a bad taste since then.
When I went to sign up for the DJI beta program they wanted a photocopy of my driver license. Why would any foreign company want that to join a beta program?
I've had a bad taste since then.
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The thing about security is NOT the fact that DJI is "looking at data, photos, GPS metadata, etc.". The issue is that the POTENTIAL is there for them to do so. Until DJI makes it impossible for data to be hijacked ("voluntarily" (BIG air quotes there) or otherwise), no secure entity will touch them with a 10 meter cattle prod.
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I'm always going to default to my country's interest. Just seems plausible DJI could have passed sensitive data on to teh Chinese government.
DJI tried to do what the FAa should have been doing & now your average Joe info is with China.
They didn't start out collecting passports and driver's license. That came about after all the negative and mostly false claims of reckless drone pilots.
FAa still dragging their feet. Whilst citizens get hood winked by China.
DJI tried to fix a problem and China capitalized.
They didn't start out collecting passports and driver's license. That came about after all the negative and mostly false claims of reckless drone pilots.
FAa still dragging their feet. Whilst citizens get hood winked by China.
DJI tried to fix a problem and China capitalized.
How did Chyyna/DJI get stuck with policing drone pilots in America?
If an individual wants to fly a drone over a Prison in the USA that's the FAa problems not DJI/China.
Can't even be mad/tight.
If an individual wants to fly a drone over a Prison in the USA that's the FAa problems not DJI/China.
Can't even be mad/tight.
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Such hysteria with all this 
Don't want them to have your flight data? Simple, fly with a wifi only tablet & turn the wifi off.
Before you reconnect the wifi, go into your flight records in Dji Go and delete them. Then close down Dji Go (i.e. Stop it running) before you start up wifi again. That way the data isn't there to be harvested.
Dji only collects the data that you give it. if you're really concerned, then you can use an air-gapped tablet that has been set up purely for flying with and which is never reconnected to a network, if you want to go a stage further, then that tablet can be wiped & reprovisioned before it's used again. Go even further? Then overwrite the black box sd card in the Flight Controller. Heck, if it's that critical, get a Phantom or Mavic, use it once then destroy it - they're cheap enough!
As to companies collecting data and their governments looking at it.... you'd be very naive to think our own governments don't do that too... with and without the company knowing about it.
Don't want them to have your flight data? Simple, fly with a wifi only tablet & turn the wifi off.
Before you reconnect the wifi, go into your flight records in Dji Go and delete them. Then close down Dji Go (i.e. Stop it running) before you start up wifi again. That way the data isn't there to be harvested.
Dji only collects the data that you give it. if you're really concerned, then you can use an air-gapped tablet that has been set up purely for flying with and which is never reconnected to a network, if you want to go a stage further, then that tablet can be wiped & reprovisioned before it's used again. Go even further? Then overwrite the black box sd card in the Flight Controller. Heck, if it's that critical, get a Phantom or Mavic, use it once then destroy it - they're cheap enough!
As to companies collecting data and their governments looking at it.... you'd be very naive to think our own governments don't do that too... with and without the company knowing about it.
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And (playing Devil's Advocate here), if you're all going to get hot n bothered about DJI's holding of info and logs, what about Healthydrones? They hold flight data and copies of the lo-res flight log photos too. They've just added a new feature showing a Map of flight locations.... that's just shown that they don't actually delete previously uploaded records when they're over your flight plan... they still hold them (or some part of them).
Ok, They scrape their data from DJI's server and hold it on their own, rather than get it straight from the flight app, but who's to say if the CIA/FBI/NSA or some other bunch of spooks went to Healthydrones and demanded to see their records, that they wouldn't comply? They may well have already done so, but not be allowed to tell you.
If you're a pilot flying in some country that isn't best-friends-forever with USA, then maybe you might feel the same way about Healthydrones (or any other data aggregator) as DJI. Maybe somewhere in China, there are Chinese having the exact same discussions about HD and the US government...?
What about Pix4d and other cloud mapping systems... your geotagged data goes up to their servers, and you get a result back. Maybe there's someone in their organisations flagging up interesting locations and info....
And for the record, I'm not saying any of the companies I've mentioned do any level of what amounts to industrial espionage. And at the moment I've no problem with either Dji or healthydrones or any other company I use holding flight data. I get benefit from them doing so and am happy to continue to use them. Ok, I'm not doing sensitive sites, but if I where, then I'd be asking the client what their security policies dictated was done or not done with the data...
Ok, They scrape their data from DJI's server and hold it on their own, rather than get it straight from the flight app, but who's to say if the CIA/FBI/NSA or some other bunch of spooks went to Healthydrones and demanded to see their records, that they wouldn't comply? They may well have already done so, but not be allowed to tell you.
If you're a pilot flying in some country that isn't best-friends-forever with USA, then maybe you might feel the same way about Healthydrones (or any other data aggregator) as DJI. Maybe somewhere in China, there are Chinese having the exact same discussions about HD and the US government...?
What about Pix4d and other cloud mapping systems... your geotagged data goes up to their servers, and you get a result back. Maybe there's someone in their organisations flagging up interesting locations and info....
And for the record, I'm not saying any of the companies I've mentioned do any level of what amounts to industrial espionage. And at the moment I've no problem with either Dji or healthydrones or any other company I use holding flight data. I get benefit from them doing so and am happy to continue to use them. Ok, I'm not doing sensitive sites, but if I where, then I'd be asking the client what their security policies dictated was done or not done with the data...
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What about Facebook and all the other social media companies we freely give our data and pictures to... they collect and agregate data. Bet they share data and pics with "friendly" Governments - wilingly or unwillingly. Your mobile phone company... they gather and retain cell tower and call data.
If you download apps to your 'smart' phone, most of those apps are able to gather info about you. Some gather more than you think or have agreed to - OK so maybe DJI Go is amongst them... but it won't be the only one by far!
If you download apps to your 'smart' phone, most of those apps are able to gather info about you. Some gather more than you think or have agreed to - OK so maybe DJI Go is amongst them... but it won't be the only one by far!
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The rhetoric out of the US at China is getting crazy at the moment.
This is not about DJI this is about USA and China.
DJI do not sync logs by its self, this HAS been confirmed by the guys who have hacked DJI Go and the firmware, their exact words were that there is nothing sinister going back by its self other than generic data used for troubleshooting and product improvements, these guys owe DJI nothing and to a point are at war on some things as we have all seen, they would be more than happy to spill the beans if something was happening so people need to get it out of their heads that logs are being send back with all your footage as it’s just not happing, if you do not sync then you are good, turning off Wi-fi is simply not necessary
Now let’s use a little bit of logic here looking at all these reports as it’s crazy, we record all of this lovely footage and data and Store it on large SD cards or SSD drives, so according to these reports we are to believe that as soon as you get home and connect to the Wi-fi that DJI is uploading all of this data with out us knowing, even video cache is Gb of data, this is being instantly transferred as soon as you connect is it ?, I would love to know what compression they are using to do this as it’s so good it’s almost undetectable.
Let’s now look at what really posses a security risk, people filming and uploading to YouTube, this is the true issue not the craft uploading from a state security point of view, flight log data is irrelevant to a point as it has little real benefit with out images unless it’s military ect and again the OG guys have not found this is happening, if a government or anyone wanted to spy on another state what is the easiest way ?
1. sell them drones and try to steal the data or 2.just go one YouTube and search for some footage.
All this talk of DJI steeling you data and your uncle joe’s data is just insanity, there is more tin foil being used to make hats than will cover all the turkey in the land on the 25th with this stuff.
It’s political on every level this, DJI are not perfect and need to sort some of their crap out but that more failure of processes than actual policy to deceive.
This is not about DJI this is about USA and China.
DJI do not sync logs by its self, this HAS been confirmed by the guys who have hacked DJI Go and the firmware, their exact words were that there is nothing sinister going back by its self other than generic data used for troubleshooting and product improvements, these guys owe DJI nothing and to a point are at war on some things as we have all seen, they would be more than happy to spill the beans if something was happening so people need to get it out of their heads that logs are being send back with all your footage as it’s just not happing, if you do not sync then you are good, turning off Wi-fi is simply not necessary
Now let’s use a little bit of logic here looking at all these reports as it’s crazy, we record all of this lovely footage and data and Store it on large SD cards or SSD drives, so according to these reports we are to believe that as soon as you get home and connect to the Wi-fi that DJI is uploading all of this data with out us knowing, even video cache is Gb of data, this is being instantly transferred as soon as you connect is it ?, I would love to know what compression they are using to do this as it’s so good it’s almost undetectable.
Let’s now look at what really posses a security risk, people filming and uploading to YouTube, this is the true issue not the craft uploading from a state security point of view, flight log data is irrelevant to a point as it has little real benefit with out images unless it’s military ect and again the OG guys have not found this is happening, if a government or anyone wanted to spy on another state what is the easiest way ?
1. sell them drones and try to steal the data or 2.just go one YouTube and search for some footage.
All this talk of DJI steeling you data and your uncle joe’s data is just insanity, there is more tin foil being used to make hats than will cover all the turkey in the land on the 25th with this stuff.
It’s political on every level this, DJI are not perfect and need to sort some of their crap out but that more failure of processes than actual policy to deceive.
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agreed, only mentioned it as it's soooo darned easy to do, even for those who're paranoid
I've wondered about that too, I wish someone would reverse engineer it as it would save me $$$$ buying all that storage space and hours of time transfering it
Turn someone & pay them to get the relevant data you want, not get gov'mt minions to trawl through several Gibibytes of irrelevant data and pics of suburban back yards, amazing scenery, and mis-takes from blockbuster movies
Very useful is a tinfoil hat, you never know when you might need one
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Such hysteria with all this
Don't want them to have your flight data? Simple, fly with a wifi only tablet & turn the wifi off.
Oh yeah? Be warned, if you follow your plan, you can expect this:
Warning: Strong language. You may want to turn down your sound card. Yeah...I was furious...beyond livid....
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I never sign out of the Apps. However, the last DJI Go update may have signed me out as it's just asked me to sign in again..
But, just done it, no probs. Signed in to DJI Go while connected to wifi. closed the app down. turn phone on to aeroplane mode (no connections whatsoever), started DJI Go and it lets me in. Same for DJI Go 4.
I'd recommend you turn off iOS app autoupdate. That way you can make sure that the app only gets updated by you when you're at home and not about to fly. Then you can check that the stupid app doesn't want you to sign in again before you leave and lose wifi signal.
But, just done it, no probs. Signed in to DJI Go while connected to wifi. closed the app down. turn phone on to aeroplane mode (no connections whatsoever), started DJI Go and it lets me in. Same for DJI Go 4.
I'd recommend you turn off iOS app autoupdate. That way you can make sure that the app only gets updated by you when you're at home and not about to fly. Then you can check that the stupid app doesn't want you to sign in again before you leave and lose wifi signal.
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Did you cache your maps before you left home ? Likely app has updated via IOS , not really DJIs fault other than wanting you to sign in.
One of my pre flight pre leave home routines is to check the maps on IOS especially.
On Crystalsky/Android you can download off line maps but not for satellite view so I still check it.
Likely iOS has updated your apps while it was on charge.
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