Seeing as how the term “Drone” is now applied to anything that’s over 250g, RC controlled, and capable of sustained flight, it will be a tough one to implement without causing severe damage to hobby model flying, it could kill it altogether. It has been implied that all “Drones” that fit in certain categories, irrespective of manufacturer, will be required to have this feature.
One of my fun models is a highly detailed P51 with a wingspan of just 750mm, and with a battery and a small 4ch Rx’er it is over the 250g limit. It’s an insult insisting I now have to be registered to fly this lump of EPO foam but an added injury if I’m expected to make it electronically conspicuous to the general public. Especially as it very rarely gets above 30ft agl. This can also apply to my racing quads that are over 250g AUW. Again these are very rarely flown any higher than 30ft as it becomes about as interesting as scrolling around the Google Earth App in FPV mode and of little challenge flying LOS freestyle.
My point is that the whole registration shenanigans and subsequent “tracking” ability has been implemented using general ignorance as the construct. No risk assessment was performed to identify the many different disciplines of model flying. Therefore my 750mm wingspan P51 @ 330g AUW is considered to be in the same risk bracket of a 1/3 scale IC jet turbo powered F16 model with an AUW of 19kg.
They will if they want to fly in a certain category like A1 over people or A2 close to people.
Home builds and any anything that dosent fit the new catergories will still be able to fly away from people with the same restrictions as we currently have.
Dear all, I’ve reported the situation with DJI equipment’s existing exposure of personal data (and their proposal to make that personal data more widely accessible) to the Information Commissioner’s Office today. I think it’s not a straightforward issue in data protection law, but it will be interested to see whether the ICO is willing to investigate further.
If more technically savvy members of the forum feel like doing the same, the ICO general contact form is here. I’ve explained to them my general privacy concerns, but others may be able to share more detail on precisely what data is being exposed and how it is currently accessible.
As above I’ve sent dji an email raising my concerns, last I heard from them is they have passed it to relevant department for response.
Waiting now for there answer.
Well this is dji response to my concerns, ( much as expected realy).
Antonette （DJI Support）
11月18日 CST15:54
Dear Robert,
Thank you for contacting DJI Technical Support.
We appreciate your time for sending an email to us and let me assist you.
Regarding your concern, please be advised that the flight records should be sync first in order for us to view the flight record on our end. Please refer to our After - Sales below for Use of Personal Contact Information and Data, see below:
Use of Personal Contact Information and Data
If you obtain service under this policy, you authorize DJI to store, use, and process your flight log information and your contact information, including name, phone numbers, address, and e-mail address. You agree and understand that it is necessary for DJI to collect, process and use your data to perform service under this policy. We may contact you to inquire about your satisfaction with our service or to notify you about any product recalls or safety issues. DJI may request your authorization to access, use and process the vision image data that stored in your aircraft product when you decide to apply for after-sales service. If you refuse to do so, DJI may not be able to provide certain after-sales service to you. In achieve these aims, you authorize DJI to transfer your information to any country where we do business and to provide it to entities acting on our behalf. We may also disclose your information where required by law. DJI’s privacy policy is available at http://www.dji.com/policy.
With this, please reply on this email if the refund process has been performed so we can request for deletion of information.
Thank you for your understanding and for choosing DJI.
When we sign up for these things, whether it be a drone or a new phone contract or any service we undertake. We surely only ever expect a company to keep and use our information between us and themselves?!
We’re all aware that certain aspects of our data for some companies is used for advertising purposes. Isnt this why we dont (just speaking possibly for me here) read the Ts and Cs fully because there is an understanding or expectation that our data is kept safe and isnt given out willynilly.?!
This might just be my take on it all but Ive come to understand that my tastes in music, the items I order through amazon, my online food shopping, clothing items I may buy online. Those choices are used (and abused) by those companies wanting me to buy other things from their ‘store’. So my usage data gets rehashed in a bid for these companies to entice me to buy other items from them. We’re all used to that by now. That I can just about take. However DJI look to be taking very personal data in the form of my location and giving it out freely and I mean FREELY.
Its total BS. Can see other apps / services jumping on the bandwagon. We’ll have to be logging each time we drive our vehicle after 9pm incase the neighbours think we’re upto no good. Folk be able to check why our car is on their street at any given time. To me, this sets new benchmark and not a good one.
The problem is that DJI aren’t sharing your personal data. Any that they collect is kept private. You are broadcasting your own personal data directly to the world, using DJI equipment that you bought and now control.
I’m far from clear that there is any breach of data protection law here. However, there may be general obligations on DJI to ensure that customers are properly informed about what data their equipment broadcasts; there may also be an obligation to have a degree of control over that. But data protection law generally covers an organisation’s collection and use of personal data, and as DJI aren’t sharing it from their servers, it may be difficult to get action taken.
But this is my part of my objection is that you HAVE to agree to their terms otherwise you cannot use your drone, have you seen what happens when you click NO! , to my mind having paid out £1500 on a drone I don’t like being blackmailed ( if that’s the right word for it) in order to use it.
I can’t find anything in the DJI UAS terms that informs me they will broadcast my personal data, or that gives consent, but I could easily have missed it.
It already happens if you have Bluetooth turned on - many stores now use “Bluetooth Beacons” to track you around the store, which sections you visit, in what order, how long you spend in each one etc… All data being used purely for marketing purposes of course … … …
Antonette （DJI Support）
