Hacker News Reader

Comment by seatac76 | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone have an authoritative source on what data DJI captures and relays to China?. I want to buy a drone but concerned about privacy.

View on HN

There have been some audits including the full network capture with Wireshark

https://www.precisionhawk.com/hubfs/Retest_DJI%20Cybersecuri...

https://www.auvsi.org/sites/default/files/DHS%20report.pdf

This is from the DOI, see from page 40 https://web.archive.org/web/20190916135227/https://www.doi.g...

>We did not detect any leakage of data to DJI servers with any of the apps. However, all three apps make a Domain Name System(DNS) request to the computer hosting the WiFi network to resolve the IP address of "www.dji.com" when they are first started. This DNS request goes to the router or a DNS server, and does not actually communicate with any DJI servers, but it does tell the app the IP address of DJI servers. The DJI Pilot Beta app follows this DNS request up with a ping to one ofthe DJI servers, and receives a ping response back. This ping is used by the app to check that the server is up and can receive messages. The ping does not contain any data, but the server could get the IP address of the tablet and the time the app was started (since that’s when the ping is sent)

Note that the CCP can command a device to phone home in the future. So "We did not detect any leakage of data to DJI servers" just means that the device is currently not sending data home.

Honestly? Assume they collect everything, such as location, the pictures and videos taken (and not taken), flight paths (this one I know for sure), telemetry from the device and drone, etc. Even if they're not doing it now there's no reason they wouldn't in the future, they are basically a monopoly when it comes to consumer drones and they are in China, they don't give a ** about privacy.

Ironically, I do recommend them, they simply are the only option in the market right now and all of their drones have something interesting to offer.

If you have log sync turned on - which I think is the default - your entire flight path is sent to the cloud. There are also a number of thumbnails from the flight visible in the web app. They're very low resolution, but I don't know if that's all that's sent or if they're downscaling them server side.

Have you considered Skydio instead?

I thought they only made professional drones. I wasn’t clear I was in the market for a personal drone.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com