Comment by datahack
11 days ago
Allowing a company that repeatedly violates basic app store rules and exports data to a country with adversarial interests unrestricted access to our infrastructure via drones is highly problematic.
This problematic situation extends in many ways to critical sectors of our economy, including agriculture, energy, defense, etc.
The data collected by these drones is extensive and sensitive. Crop data alone is crucial, and if this information cannot be controlled, it should not be exported.
This stance is not anti-China, but no country should permit unrestricted access to its airspace for surveillance.
Data is the new oil as well, especially with AI. These drone derived datasets are becoming critical path information.
How else can you control the information besides a ban? I LOVE DJI and have several of these drones. But I don’t know how I feel about this because of the problematic data issues. It’s complex and the situation is very difficult.
Its funny because app store rules aren't laws. If we were really concerned about privacy, we'd have our own strong GDPR that mandated privacy and control measures and controls. Banning things doesn't work because the base foundational protections aren't there.
The ability to abide by all store rules are not only legally enforceable contracts between companies — they are legal agreements after all — but a strong indicator of whether companies will abide by the normalized standards required to do business in an ecosystem.
Privacy protection is not the issue at the heart of these concerns: it’s national security.