Top FCC Official Calls For Ban of DJI Drones, Citing National Security Risk:
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has called for the addition of DJI drones to the FCC Covered List, which could prevent the company from selling its products in the United States.
In a letter published to the FCC official website, Carr accuses the Shenzhen-based drone company of collecting “vast amounts” of sensitive data and effectively calls the drones Chinese surveillance.
[...] Carr says that one former Pentagon official has even said that the government agency knew — written as a statement of fact — that much of that information was being sent back to China from DJI drones.
“DJI’s collection of vast troves of sensitive data is especially troubling given that China’s National Intelligence Law grants the Chinese government the power to compel DJI to assist it in espionage activities,” Carr says.
DJI was placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity List last year, [...] Its placement there made it so that American companies could not export parts to DJI. Companies on the [list] would theoretically find it harder to sell products in the United States, but DJI does not appear to have suffered this problem.
Carr says that many of the concerns he has are linked to DJI’s widespread use by various state and local public safety and law enforcement agencies. There are also reports that the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI also use DJI drones, which Carr says makes it even more important that a full review of DJI is conducted to address potential national security threats.
He's not wrong, but speaking as an ex-employer of a US based drone development company in 2010-2012, I believe this problem could have been significantly mitigated by encouraging domestic development instead of stifling it back then.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 21 2021, @11:29PM (1 child)
Everything is prohibited, unless it turns out that China can use it, in which case it's an emergency requiring government intervention to fix. The problem is government and the solution is more government.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 22 2021, @02:10AM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by krishnoid on Thursday October 21 2021, @11:45PM
*So* many things this could apply to.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Barenflimski on Thursday October 21 2021, @11:46PM (12 children)
DJI owns the drone market. They got an early start. They made cool features. Their stuff works. There has yet to be a true competitor.
There is no reason we can't make that type of software here in the States or rest of the world. I know of many small companies working on this, that have things that work for their drones, but have yet to be able to out compete DJI. The main reason these folks can't compete is that their software is not very compatible with the current DJI implementation, and DJI has most of the major (Chinese) manufacturers of drones, wrapped up in contracts before a drone is ever made, much less shipped. This might be the kicker. I sure hope so, for the sake of the drone industry. We need more competitors.
Parts though? When your company needs 500 plastic propellers every month and a few basic PCB's (Printed Circuit Boards) only made in one country (China), you're still dependent on the international (China) market.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday October 22 2021, @12:03AM (11 children)
Can't just swap out the electronics for domestically sourced?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Insightful) by deimtee on Friday October 22 2021, @12:47AM
These days "domestically sourced" means that a local company bought them from China and resold them to you.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 22 2021, @01:16AM (6 children)
Not many components are made in the US anymore. When Trump's tariffs went into effect, the last television manufacturer left in the US immediately went belly up. Since Trump targeted components and not finished goods, it punished what domestic industry we still had left.
https://time.com/5361394/tv-factory-closing-trump-tariffs/ [time.com]
There is no domestic supply chain to support most manufacturing industries in the US anymore.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 22 2021, @02:24AM
Not just in Trump's America. I heard the same issue happening in England, where the Raspi people were saying that import tax on components was higher than on the finished product.
My bet is on large importers having planned things that way.
(Score: 2, Touché) by fustakrakich on Friday October 22 2021, @04:04AM (4 children)
Guess we have to build one then.. And these "trump tariffs", is he still president?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 22 2021, @03:20PM (1 child)
Oh look, fusty tips his hand some more. Yes trump tariffs, those were a real thing that went down in the history books. What does him being out of office now have to do with that fact? Very strange point for you to try and make, if I didn't know better I'd say you're secretly a recovering MAGA Qper.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday October 22 2021, @06:02PM
:-) So where the "Biden Repeal"? Is Trump telling him not to? You shouldn't complain about policy you have no intention of changing.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by helel on Saturday October 23 2021, @12:26AM (1 child)
You're responding to a post about an event that occurred in 2018. Trump was president in 2018. Biden hadn't even announced that he would be running yet, so far as I recall, never mind taken the powers of office.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday October 23 2021, @02:53AM
Biden is president now. He can undo it. Has any effort been made at all?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday October 22 2021, @10:55AM (2 children)
The electronics are (relatively) cheap and simple. The software that provides the features from those electronics is an order of magnitude (or two) more complex and costly to develop, and being software it is several orders of magnitude cheaper per copy to manufacture in quantity.
A significant problem in the space is interoperability of the various software components, they build up together as an ecosystem on top of the electronics. Ten years ago it felt like, first nobody in government was thinking about even five years in the future, and second that our military was jealousy guarding what drone tech we had as if that would keep hostile states from ever having it.
Newsflash: anyone with access to receive any kind of GPS signal and purchase the basic components that go into drones can build these things in a garage with trivial funding and a couple of decent software engineers who understand relatively basic geometry and control systems... Universities around the globe are producing thousands of graduates capable of drone development every year.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday October 22 2021, @06:31PM (1 child)
Yeah, basing everything on finance does make it difficult, but if they want security, they have to take the first step.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Friday October 22 2021, @09:09PM
The thing that really killed the domestic industry was the regulation - while the rest of the world was relatively open to drone flying for profit, it was kept as a research/hobby activity in the US for an additional 10 years, with only a few permits (like count them on one hand, nationwide) issued for commercial use. So, the domestic industry was left to try to compete with military development contractors - and while I'm sure the military guys do good work in their space, they'll NEVER compete with DJI, whereas all these post-grad startup companies could have, if they had some kind of market to hope to sell into to attract investment capital.
Now, DJI has a 15 year jump on similar US industries, and the US industries are still slightly hobbled by regulation compared to the rest of the world.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Mojibake Tengu on Friday October 22 2021, @01:09AM (2 children)
If Chinese products were outlawed to sell, only outlaws could buy Chinese products... wait, what did I just said??
Anyway. Guys, your current version of Capitalism is funny so much.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday October 22 2021, @01:51AM (1 child)
Well, I don't think "Capitalism" should be worhsipped, but if I did I wouldn't see anything wrong with demanding a level playing field at the national level. I could probably find some quotes from Adam Smith to support that.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday October 22 2021, @11:00AM
Drone regulation has been heavily anti capitalist in the US domestic market. Want to make a living developing drones in the US? Your legal customers were the military, hobbyists who are forbidden from making money using your products, and international customers who have similar drone development companies in their own country to choose from.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by captain normal on Friday October 22 2021, @01:55AM (2 children)
"...that much of that information was being sent back to China from DJI drones." Unless there are a shit pile of low-orbit Chinese com satellites all over the U.S., I doubt there is enough potential to transmit large amounts of data for more than the distance that they can be controlled in. These are not the large high power drones our forces use that can be controlled by satellite. My bullshit detector is going off big time.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 22 2021, @02:27AM
Well, a flash module doesn't take much space or weight, and the units are probably connected to the internet at least sometimes for updates etc. They don't need to be streaming over satellite, they can use innovative compression schemes to buffer to onboard storage, then upload when internet is available.
(Score: 5, Informative) by MIRV888 on Friday October 22 2021, @03:54AM
They tie to your cell phone for gps/ google maps data. They can send whatever they want.