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> there's no way to be sure that every second of GPS-tagged video shot by a DJI drone isn't going into a giant server farm owned by the Chinese intelligence ser

> there's no way to be sure that every second of GPS-tagged video shot by a DJI drone isn't going into a giant server farm owned by the Chinese intelligence service. I checked your source and it didn’t back up this claim. I’m not a networking specialist but isn’t it possible to detect if something is transmitting a massive amount of data (such as video) to an undetermined destination? seems like this type of blatant data export would be easy to detect and subsequently ban the device doing it. I’m just a simple software developer, so the network stuff can go over my head sometimes (heh), but the claim that such a large amount of data is being transmitted in a way that couldn’t be confirmed enough to ban the product seems dubious.

aynyc 3y ago
Given the volume of data, they can just box up the hard drives and ship via container ships or planes.
- noknownsender 3y ago
  I assume he means at the device level.
  - MichaelApproved 3y ago
    I did. Thanks!
    - RhodesianHunter 3y ago
      I don't know how DJI works, but presumably it ships the video out to a service that you then log in to to view? If so, it's on their servers and there's no "networking" you can do to know whether they forwarded it on from there.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - MichaelApproved 3y ago
        If that’s true then you’re right but I don’t know if that’s true.
      - 9witz 3y ago
        The DJI Mini Pro 3 works without Wifi and using the expensive controller, without a phone app, so the opportunities to upload captured data to China are very limited.
        RhodesianHunter 3y ago
        Unless you use their recommended software. https://www.dji.com/lightcut https://www.dji.com/lightcut
      - pmx 3y ago
        What a strange assumption to make. No it doesn't work like this at all. The video is saved to the SD card in the aircraft, which you then remove and insert it into your computer to download the files.
        RhodesianHunter 3y ago
        And potentially use their recommended software to work with from there: https://www.dji.com/lightcut https://www.dji.com/lightcut So not that many jumps from what I described.
      - semanticist 3y ago
        "I don't know" - so why leave a comment? Because you can doesn't mean you have to, especially when you don't actually have any knowledge on the topic at hand. (And, as people have pointed out, this is both a weird and incorrect assumption, adding nothing to the discussion other than confusion.)
        RhodesianHunter 3y ago
        Except that they do offer exactly that. No need to be so condescending. https://www.dji.com/lightcut https://www.dji.com/lightcut
        semanticist 3y ago
        There's certainly no requirement to use that (it's literally a separate app from the DJIFly app you use the control the drone), and I do know as I fly a DJI mini drone. What's worse is that I don't think it actually works how you've assumed. The drone has no internet connection itself, the software is instead pulling the files down over wifi, which is something the standard software supports if the drone is close enough. This is the "no need to export from your DJI device" - LightCut can presumably access the drone files directly. None of this requires uploading the videos to anywhere, and doing that wouldn't even make sense - these are large video files, people would notice their data plans being ravaged by multi-gig uploads every time they flew their drone. As far as being condescending, I think that's less of a negative trait than offering unbacked "I don't know, but" comments which add no value to the discussion. I did consider the value of my own comment at the time, but I think there is a big problem in tech discussion with people with no actual experience or relevant knowledge feeling that their off-the-cuff suppositions are as welcome and useful as meaningful input from people with direct experience, and highlighting this behaviour as negative and unwelcome is worth risking the inevitable backlash in response.
        RhodesianHunter 3y ago
        >What's worse is that I don't think it actually works how you've assumed. Holy irony man
ngcc_hk 3y ago
You do not need to transmit the video first. But coordinate or interested person. Even a sport watch can be a security threat as demo by some exercise army personnel. They just know who and when and where these places are. For the transfer part it is much harder as said and easier to detect in peace time. But then what happen in war or proxy-war time. You have to know how many senior Russians are killed by using a phone …
- 1024core 3y ago
  > Even a sport watch can be a security threat as demo by some exercise army personnel. In the early days of the Afghan (or was it Iraq?) war, people used Strava to figure out the locations of American bases. They'd see a bunch of smart watches suddenly wake up in the morning and start exercising at the same time, a dead giveaway.
  - Bimos 3y ago
    Recently a Russian commander got killed because he shared his daily running route on Strava which was seen by the killer. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/11/europe/russian-submarine-commander-killed-krasnador-intl/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/11/europe/russian-submarine-...
    - cjbgkagh 3y ago
      I wonder if killing their dumber commanders might inadvertently be helping them…
      - hackernewds 3y ago
        what a strange argument to make
        ethbr1 3y ago
        It's fair, but they've been working on improving the quality of their officers since 1904.

aynyc 3y ago

Given the volume of data, they can just box up the hard drives and ship via container ships or planes.

noknownsender 3y ago
I assume he means at the device level.
- MichaelApproved 3y ago
  I did. Thanks!
  - RhodesianHunter 3y ago
    I don't know how DJI works, but presumably it ships the video out to a service that you then log in to to view? If so, it's on their servers and there's no "networking" you can do to know whether they forwarded it on from there.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - MichaelApproved 3y ago
      If that’s true then you’re right but I don’t know if that’s true.
    - 9witz 3y ago
      The DJI Mini Pro 3 works without Wifi and using the expensive controller, without a phone app, so the opportunities to upload captured data to China are very limited.
      - RhodesianHunter 3y ago
        Unless you use their recommended software. https://www.dji.com/lightcut https://www.dji.com/lightcut
    - pmx 3y ago
      What a strange assumption to make. No it doesn't work like this at all. The video is saved to the SD card in the aircraft, which you then remove and insert it into your computer to download the files.
      - RhodesianHunter 3y ago
        And potentially use their recommended software to work with from there: https://www.dji.com/lightcut https://www.dji.com/lightcut So not that many jumps from what I described.
    - semanticist 3y ago
      "I don't know" - so why leave a comment? Because you can doesn't mean you have to, especially when you don't actually have any knowledge on the topic at hand. (And, as people have pointed out, this is both a weird and incorrect assumption, adding nothing to the discussion other than confusion.)
      - RhodesianHunter 3y ago
        Except that they do offer exactly that. No need to be so condescending. https://www.dji.com/lightcut https://www.dji.com/lightcut
        semanticist 3y ago
        There's certainly no requirement to use that (it's literally a separate app from the DJIFly app you use the control the drone), and I do know as I fly a DJI mini drone. What's worse is that I don't think it actually works how you've assumed. The drone has no internet connection itself, the software is instead pulling the files down over wifi, which is something the standard software supports if the drone is close enough. This is the "no need to export from your DJI device" - LightCut can presumably access the drone files directly. None of this requires uploading the videos to anywhere, and doing that wouldn't even make sense - these are large video files, people would notice their data plans being ravaged by multi-gig uploads every time they flew their drone. As far as being condescending, I think that's less of a negative trait than offering unbacked "I don't know, but" comments which add no value to the discussion. I did consider the value of my own comment at the time, but I think there is a big problem in tech discussion with people with no actual experience or relevant knowledge feeling that their off-the-cuff suppositions are as welcome and useful as meaningful input from people with direct experience, and highlighting this behaviour as negative and unwelcome is worth risking the inevitable backlash in response.
        RhodesianHunter 3y ago
        >What's worse is that I don't think it actually works how you've assumed. Holy irony man

ngcc_hk 3y ago

You do not need to transmit the video first. But coordinate or interested person. Even a sport watch can be a security threat as demo by some exercise army personnel. They just know who and when and where these places are. For the transfer part it is much harder as said and easier to detect in peace time. But then what happen in war or proxy-war time. You have to know how many senior Russians are killed by using a phone …

1024core 3y ago
> Even a sport watch can be a security threat as demo by some exercise army personnel. In the early days of the Afghan (or was it Iraq?) war, people used Strava to figure out the locations of American bases. They'd see a bunch of smart watches suddenly wake up in the morning and start exercising at the same time, a dead giveaway.
- Bimos 3y ago
  Recently a Russian commander got killed because he shared his daily running route on Strava which was seen by the killer. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/11/europe/russian-submarine-commander-killed-krasnador-intl/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/11/europe/russian-submarine-...
  - cjbgkagh 3y ago
    I wonder if killing their dumber commanders might inadvertently be helping them…
    - hackernewds 3y ago
      what a strange argument to make
      - ethbr1 3y ago
        It's fair, but they've been working on improving the quality of their officers since 1904.