DJI GO App and Your Privacy

[With The Birds]

Thank you for informing us, it seems they have no respect for their customers.

 

[Meta4]

DJI has recently updated their "DJI+Discover" app with a new feature to find fellow DJI users flying their drones (DJI app helps you find fellow drone lovers). The app apparently indicates "drone hot spots", i.e. areas where people fly a lot. This has revealed a concerning issue that impacts all Phantom 3, Phantom 4 and Inspire users. These "hot spots" show the locations of people's

Before people get too carried away with the pitchforks and flaming torches, I'd like to have more details.
I'm not so sure that DJI is giving away the location of your house etc.
I haven't uploaded any flights for a long time and when I check the Discover app, although I have flown from home many times there is no hotspot near here.
Same goes for six different places where I've flown at least 20 times.
Some other well known flying spots I've flown are there, but it's likely that many others have flown there as well.

I suspect that it's not as simple as DJI is spying on you and telling people where you live.
If DJI know where I'm flying, they aren't sharing quite a few of my favourite locations.
Perhaps they know but their hotspot algorithm requires many individual flyers to have been there?
Or maybe they don't know at all until you upload your records?

I'd suggest investigating further before you get too excited about this.

 

[Apilot101]

.....
That was me also...

AND i as well....now I'm hearing crickets.

 

[Apilot101]

Ian, this is all the more reason why we need to try to light a fire under the "development " thread.

 

[flyNfrank]

Remember back last summer when @flyNfrank warned us about this and he was teased as a tin foil head type?

Yeah they sure did.

On the subject itself, most would be shocked if they knew how much data gets uploaded from their device. And even if you take measures to stop it now, they already have everything. It's like your devices have been cloned and a carbon copy of your data has been entered into each clone. The sad part is, you now don't know what goes on with all your data. Btw, I'm not just referring to you flight logs either. Everything.

 

[DrJoe]

Apparently they've handicaped the app. The map doesn't show anything except for Best Buy locations, no hotspots, and I can't post an event. The app says not available for your location, Which is in New Jersey.

 

[ianwood]

Yes, they've stopped displaying where people fly in the Discover app but that doesn't mean they aren't still collecting the data with the intent of using it for their own benefit.

 

[Lonewolf]

Yes, they've stopped displaying where people fly in the Discover app but that doesn't mean they aren't still collecting the data with the intent of using it for their own benefit.

Hmmm. Maybe a little bird whispered in someone's ear saying, "We could get in big trouble for this?" [emoji15]

 

[Meta4]

Hotspots are still showing up on my copy of the app.
I'm not sure what the perceived problem is with this.

 

[ianwood]

They apparently took out the hotspots that are derived from Go data. The issues are these:

• Hot spots revealed people's homes.
• Go data is collected even if you don't sync with DJI's back end.
• DJI is using this data irresponsibly and without safety and privacy consideration.
• DJI has very poor end point security.

This is apparently from the API end point. It shows that DJI has zero knowledge and appreciation for privacy and security of the data they collect without our knowledge.

 

[NimpoCub]

I learned long ago, and am often reminded: "What you post to the internet is NOT private anymore".
Personally, I'm not afraid of my "stats" being used by anyone. (terrorists aside)

 

[ianwood]

I learned long ago, and am often reminded: "What you post to the internet is NOT private anymore".
Personally, I'm not afraid of my "stats" being used by anyone. (terrorists aside)

That's the problem with the direction DJI is taking these things. They want them to be IoT devices all wired into social media. Frankly, I am sick of social media. My drones don't need to be online.

I only use drones for filmmaking. That DJI has data about my locations and possibly even thumbnails and could be sharing this data without my explicit authorization could get me in a lot of trouble with production companies.

And DJI shouldn't get to profit off of my data when I've already paid them for the product. That's double dipping.

 

[Tony Cowan]

Go app and every other app on your device does this. Where is the surprise about this?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Daninho]

Reminds me about the bitdefender anti virus software giving an alarm when i opened the DJI software on my PC back in Phantom2 days. It wanted to connect to a server and bitdefender blocked it with a virus alert. I always feld bad having the assistant software on my pc

 

[ianwood]

Go app and every other app on your device does this. Where is the surprise about this?

Unless you are downloading low quality apps, this is simply not true.

 

[Bigskyflyer]

This is precisely why I'm still on FW 1.4, DJI Go 2.4 (for settings only) and I only use Litchi 2.7.1 (pre-SDK 3) for my actual flying. It really is a shame and a sham.

Jerry

Jerry, I take it this is not an issue if you are on older firmware? I am still running the pilot app and 1.3.20 on my bird.

 

[Jtrjr]

Jerry, I take it this is not an issue if you are on older firmware? I am still running the pilot app and 1.3.20 on my bird.

BigSky,

I'm on 1.4 but who knows what the hell they're doing behind the curtains. It's extremely disappointing and disgusting that they're doing this stuff without openly acknowledging that they are. I sure wish there were other viable options out there, I'd throw rhese things in the trash can. Unfortunately, at this point, they're the only guys in the game at this price point.

Jerry

 

[Trackman1]

All the apps are spying. When you get a phone you sell your soul to Apple or Google.
I'm not on Facebook or twitter. But those apps are using my data. Even with a firewall.
Need to be rooted to have effective firewall.They update all the time. I can stop then, but they start up on their own. I can not uninstall them.
Install a new app and it wants permission for everything.

Never wonder why the apps are free? Because they get money for your data.
DJI is just working their own angle.

 

[chapsrlz]

This is an important notice if you wish to keep your flight data, images and other information private. New information suggests that DJI is collecting and reusing your flight data.

DJI has recently updated their "DJI+Discover" app with a new feature to find fellow DJI users flying their drones (DJI app helps you find fellow drone lovers). The app apparently indicates "drone hot spots", i.e. areas where people fly a lot. This has revealed a concerning issue that impacts all Phantom 3, Phantom 4 and Inspire users. These "hot spots" show the locations of people's homes, their common flying places, etc. even if they didn't choose to share their flight data with DJI and only ever used the Go app.

This indicates that DJI is collecting information from the Go app in ways that are not apparent to most users even if you don't sync your data to their servers. And it suggests that DJI is intent on using this information for other products and services to their benefit.

It is suggested that if you do not want to share your flight data, images, etc. with DJI and allow them to use it for their benefit, you should consider one or more of the following steps:

• Turn off cellular data and location for the Go app.
• Set up your home firewall to block DJI servers and use a VPN to access as needed.
  
• Purge app data before allowing the Go app to connect to DJI servers.

Be aware that the app may behave differently with these services disabled.

and thats only what we know...

i wouldnt be surprised that they collect all sorts of data among their users, specially on android devices, heres a preview of the permissions grantes to dji go on android devices.

to see the full list go to
DJI GO - Android Apps on Google Play

and scroll to the bottom then click on permissions -> view details...

on ios its a very different story, because apple is very sensitive about data collection.

 

[Sagebrush]

If there's a DJI employee sitting in China that's so bored that he's going to pick out my flying data and look at my coordinates or whatever info they've got–amongst the 1,000,000,000 other Phantom owners that are flying every day–to see where I've flown, then so be it.

Maybe I'll wave at him the next time I do a hand-catch.

Perhaps he can even figure out who Sagebrush really is.

Sagebrush