Drone Pilot Privacy

[Exception]

First, let me state that I am not trying to conduct any illegal activities and hide my tracks, I just have concerns in general about privacy and not sharing too much information. I have also perused the DJI GO App and Your Privacy thread and see some justifiable concerns. Although, I am not necessarily against supporting the community with the use of aggregated data to improve the technology and functions, I am concerned with the release of individual personal information.

My question is to what extent is privacy at risk with the uses of DJI products; Phantom, DJI Go, skipixel as well as third party applications and services; Litchi, DroneDeploy, PhantomHelp logviewer, HealthyDrones, NVDrones, etc. I like the functionality of many of these services, track all my flight data for personal records, and the ability to share specific flight data.

My thought is if I am flying around a house often, it is easy to make the assumption that is my residence by reviewing flight log data. If I also have some videos and pictures publicly available on social media one might be able to ascertain information about family, vehicles, professional affiliations, etc. Combine with other public knowledge information this can become quite intrusive.

Am I over paranoid? Probably, but is there any justification behind this? Maybe.

I have already accepted the fact that China has signification amounts of my personal information, but I choose not to personally disclose any more than necessary.

 

[SnoozeDoggyDog]

If you don't like it don't use it. Simple. I'm sure there's a disclaimer that you agreed to in the apps mentioned.

 

[Exception]

If you don't like it don't use it. Simple. I'm sure there's a disclaimer that you agreed to in the apps mentioned.

I use GMail, YouTube, Facebook, this site, and many others and I am aware that they use my data for many different reasons, including financial gain.

I guess my question is more of the lines of, are these services taking any steps to protect personal identifiable information? And are there any additional steps or settings with these provides to help reduce the amount of personal information they collect, while still using their services.

 

[alokbhargava]

One should analyze what additional info we are passing on to DJI which is not available with digital giants like Google, Facebook........ Secondly we need not pass on info about our flying locations etc if we care that much about privacy.

I really wonder what's private in this digital world. Any time we connect to Internet, we are noticed by someone. Anytime we use our credit card, we are tracked. Anytime we use smart phone, we are tracked. We are all the time connected to Internet and can be monitored if needed.

Fly P3 with no internet and don't ever sync your data to DJI clouds. DJI go app connects to DJI servers and exchange info whenever feasible. Keeping RC and P3 off when go app is connected to Internet might restrict some flow of data but we have no info about it. It will add NFZs based on your location if Internet is accessible to go app.

........

 

[BVC]

Valid question.

Simple answer is don't use products that connect to the Internet.

 

[tcope]

If you give personal information to someone with the knowledge that it will be given to others, you only need to ask yourself that question.

 

[Exception]

Thanks for the replies.

I understand anything on the internet should be considered public. But in the same since, my SSN is transmitted all over the internet from tax information, banking, credit, but I still consider that these organizations are taking necessary steps to protect that data.

When I first began researching quadcopters I remember seeing a comment on a youtube video where someone pulled up the address of the house where the video was from on Zillow and made a comment about the property value. Completely unrelated to the video, but the fact that the creeper had the time and desire to look it up and comment is just unnerving. While I know my housing status is public record at the country clerk’s office, adding another vector in which this information is exposed initial concerned me. Should it? I guess thinking about it more, my address is all over the place when considering services and products I have ordered and shipped to me.

I guess to close this out, while my flight data is not personal identifiable information, personal information can be extrapolated from it, but no more than many other sources.

So I guess just carry on smartly and fly safely.

 

[BVC]

What I can't understand is why does anyone care where you live? Or where you park? Or what you drive?

People are flat out sheep these days. Victims of social and television media hype. Like there is some magical power that a criminal won't find your home from roaming a parking lot..

I get it tho - if you piss someone off it could be an open door for waving a flag saying hey I live here! but reality is there is very little concern for information like this unless you have something to hide.

So if you don't have a trap house, warrants or generally piss the world off - there is nothing to worry about

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Simple answer is don't use products that connect to the Internet.

Woah, this stopped me dead in my tracks. Without reading further, I'm going to just say that this is not reasonable.

What is more reasonable, and this is to the OP, is to go ahead and be at peace with today's world of being connected, but (as I think you've already said), don't give any more than you need to.

I don't really care of someone builds a dossier on me that details what kind of pets I have, what food I eat, the type of toys I buy, or what brand of personal lubricant I prefer.

But I'll stop short of giving them a complete picture of me, my worth (which isn't much <- seed! Oops... ).

It's tough. I've already made too many posts in these drone forums that would come back to bite me if I ever entered the UAV business. And if you have my email address, my google profile / past is a wee bit embarrassing.

The only trouble about saying "they can only have what we give them" is that we're not totally in control of what leaks. I like to think we're getting better about that ...

 

[BVC]

I agree with you.

The age we live in.. we need to trust others with our information. At what level we trust an individual company is left to the folk who read the fine print, stand up and fight in the court of law against any wrong doing.

To the masses tho - it's a huge pool of crap that not many wish to play in. Sad. But at least we have standards here unlike other areas of the world!!

 

[MPPilot]

Certain institutions such as the medical field, banking, and some government agencies had a duty to protect your privacy. Commercial companies such as Google, Facebook, Sears, and grocery store loyalty cards have no obligation to privacy as you voluntarily participate in their services. It all comes down to their policies, which they can change as they see fit. When you use your drone you are agreeing to DJI's privacy policies, whatever they may be at the time. Your finger is on the throttle, its your choice.