Re:U.S. Warns Of Spy Dangers Of Chinese-Made Drones
by usrusr on Wednesday May 29, 2019 @11:33AM
(#20041355)
> How many drones do you think DJI would sell if it became known that flight logs and aerial photos were being uploaded to the Chinese government
Roughly about as many as today. A recreational or content production drone is sitting dead without a battery >>95% of the time. This is a much weaker threat model (both objectively and in the perception of consumers) than all those connected, always-on microphones and cameras installed in homes, offices and pockets.
I mention this as a precedent: to many people out there, "the Chinese government" isn't a lot more foreign than "some American tech empire" and data-derived unpleasantries are far more likely to have practical implications for them with US immigration than with the Chinese communist party (because the US is still more open). And yet those people still buy westcoast-designed (and connected) devices like hotcakes.
It'd certainly damage Chinese companies and curtail those companies' utility as sources of intelligence. How many drones do you think DJI would sell if it became known that flight logs and aerial photos were being uploaded to the Chinese government? (This is all purely hypothetical but the DJI app is very aggressive about permissions and updates, so they absolutely could if they wanted to. I have a dedicated phone for mine which never gets to connect to the internet, for this very reason.)