Comment by hackernewds
11 days ago
> sufficient product telemetry is indistinguishable from surveillance malware
Isn't this mandatory given the restrictions required of them to disallow flying in banned areas?
11 days ago
> sufficient product telemetry is indistinguishable from surveillance malware
Isn't this mandatory given the restrictions required of them to disallow flying in banned areas?
No; this functionality is actually accomplished in a reasonable way, with a local database stored on the drone and checked by the drone's flight control software, and exemptions granted by uploading a signed payload to the drone detailing an unlock region and timeframe.
It's also worth noting that these restrictions aren't government imposed in countries besides China, and aren't government-linked besides a request-based "please make this location a no fly zone" process - DJI basically just exported a Chinese concept with hope of building goodwill internationally, and the no-fly zones were invented by DJI from public land use data. That's why other drones don't have no-fly zones but are still allowed for sale, there are frequent mismatches between DJI no-fly zones and real no-fly zones (both false positive and false negative), and why DJI disabled their own no-fly zone feature in much of Europe earlier this year (European mandated no-fly rules passed the responsibility to the consumer instead).
No-fly zones and unlocks is exactly why we went over to Autel and I hope they aren't next.
You don't need to phone home in order to implement no-fly zones. All you need to do is download the latest flight restrictions, which could most easily be done anonymously.
So many things don't need pervasive surveillance and privacy violations... yet it seems everything does it regardless, from the largest social media down to the most insignificant bank or government app you need to conduct your life.