Drone leader, DJI has responded to the US’ Countering CCP Drones Act recently introduced by a number of Members of the House of Representatives.
DJI responds to the Countering CCP Drones Act
DJI has shared its reponse in its latest ViewPoints post, stating that the “act damages not just DJI, but also the broad ecosystem of operators, businesses and public safety agencies that rely on their technologies to conduct safe and efficient operations.”.
Going onto say that the lawmakers behind the legislation are referencing inaccurate information regarding DJI’s operations and the security of its drones. Adding, “and have amplified xenophobic narratives in a quest to support local drone manufacturers and eliminate market competition”.
The company goes onto say that it is a leader in the commercial and consumer drone space because it essentially created it with the launch of the DJI Phantom back in 2013. That being said DJI remains supportive of “the development of U.S. drone manufacturing as we believe that competition and innovation go hand in hand, and benefit end users the most”.
The facts, from DJI
DJI has also covered a number of inaccuracies it has received, with many publicly talking about them. To read the full list, be sure to head over to DJI’s blog post.
The most interesting of the lot, is as follows:
Allegation: “DJI drones are collecting vast amounts of sensitive data – everything from high-resolution images of critical U.S. infrastructure to facial recognition technology and remote sensors that can measure an individual’s body temperature and heart rate.”
Fact: DJI drones do not collect flight logs, photos, or videos – by default. Operators have to opt-in to share this data with us, and those who want to take extra precautions can easily choose to activate Local Data Mode (and even switch on their mobile’s ‘airplane mode’) for added peace of mind. This means the flight app is completely disconnected from the internet and is similar to an air-gapped computer.
To add, DJI has not advised the use of drones to measure body temperature nor heart rate. Several novel use cases of drones were explored by the industry during the Covid-19 pandemic, in order to support public safety and emergency response operations. Measuring body temperature via drone was one such application, but we communicated that it was not advisable. As for drones measuring heart rates, this was an issue involving a different drone manufacturer; DJI was not involved in this test application.
Image via DJI
