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Drone firm DJI promises 'local data mode' to fend off US government's mooted ban

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Re: Drone firm DJI promises 'local data mode' to fend off US government's mooted ban

#61

Post by sheeshkebab »

nfc_ wrote: post #60
libertine wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with you, I think there's something that should be pointed out: China stance on foreign companies doing business in China. Currently China wants all the perks of the open global market, while closing it's own. I don't understand how this is allowed.

China not being open to multinationals is a common narrative on HN and not supported by the data. In fact in consumer goods, foreign companies have more market share in China (40%) than the US (26%). https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/featured%20insight...

Foreign companies manufacturing goods in China that is... its hard to believe anything else given China’s $500b yearly trade surplus and tech transfer requirements. Also, report feels to have a bunch of speculative stats and projections.

Re: Drone firm DJI promises 'local data mode' to fend off US government's mooted ban

#62

Post by oh_sigh »

tmotwu wrote: post #21
philips wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree. I feel that China just directly protects their markets while for whatever reason the US hides behind a defense justification.

It would be socially destructive if America directly admits free market capitalism wasn't globally competitive after all. They don't have any other option but to hide behind national security justifications. To those who still think this is about national security and most definitely not protectionist actions: why aren't these companies blanket banned immediately rather than given arbitrary timelines? India has demon…

The argument would be that it is not a current threat, but could be used as one in the future, hence the timeline to the ban, giving them time to right their ship, as it were.

And even if this is a tit-for-tat retaliation against China, it isn't indicative of free market capitalism, because the 'tat' would be China closing off its own market and heavy handed government interference in any firm which wants to operate in China.

Re: Drone firm DJI promises 'local data mode' to fend off US government's mooted ban

#63

Post by kube-system »

philips wrote: post #17
libertine wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with you, I think there's something that should be pointed out: China stance on foreign companies doing business in China. Currently China wants all the perks of the open global market, while closing it's own. I don't understand how this is allowed.

I completely agree. I feel that China just directly protects their markets while for whatever reason the US hides behind a defense justification.

China also primarily uses a national security justification.

And neither the US's nor China's national security claims are unjustified. Election interference, propaganda, and espionage are very real and legitimate concerns that all major world powers have regarding their communication infrastructure.

Trump might talk a big game to his constituents about the outsourcing of jobs -- but his economic agenda has absolutely nothing to do with the national security concerns voiced by US public servants.

Re: Drone firm DJI promises 'local data mode' to fend off US government's mooted ban

#64

Post by oh_sigh »

wisemanwillhear wrote: post #11

> A code audit carried out by FTI Consulting was said to have revealed no causes for concern, with DJI posting the exec summary (but not the full audit) on its website as a PDF. It had access to 20 million lines of source code, according to the summary, with analysis focusing on code concerned with “communication protocols and network activity with host infrastructure”. DJI can pay for all the audits in the world, if…

An audit means nothing if you have the ability to send and execute custom code to any device which uses your hardware. No one is going to audit an internet connected Windows 98 machine and say "Yup, no malware on here", and expect that to hold true for even a second after the statement was made.

Re: Drone firm DJI promises 'local data mode' to fend off US government's mooted ban

#65

Post by ping_pong »

libertine wrote: post #6
philips wrote: post #4

My take: DJI, Apple, Huawei, Google etc are all in a similar boat where the governments they operate under have publicly and privately pressured them to use their profitable platforms for spying or gathering evidence. This reduces their profitablity as consumers have less confidence the product isn't working against them. But in the case of DJI and Huawei and TikTok the US is more concerned about how those chinese co…

While I agree with you, I think there's something that should be pointed out: China stance on foreign companies doing business in China. Currently China wants all the perks of the open global market, while closing it's own. I don't understand how this is allowed.

I truly hate Trump, but the one thing I agree with him on is taking on China via a trade war. We really do need to use economic pressure to force them to act in a fair way especially with trade and stealing company secrets. I don't think any other president would be dumb enough to attempt this, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Re: Drone firm DJI promises 'local data mode' to fend off US government's mooted ban

#66

Post by [deleted] »

0xffff2 wrote: post #46
philips wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boeing does have UAV programs afaict. And from the article: > “The US Congress is considering banning the US federal government from using foreign-made drones as part of its 2021 National Defense Authorization Act,” reported Flight. A junior US defence minister, Ellen Lord, in charge of procurement, added to the aerospace magazine: “We looked at the fact that basically DJI from China had decimated our industrial base…

Boeing drones are things like the MQ-25 [0]. They don't compete with DJI. I'm a researcher (US government contractor) in the aerospace field, and they've been trying to ban us from using DJI drones for years. They keep pushing it back and making exceptions because it has been incredibly hard for us to find anything comparable that's made by a US company (and even then the hardware is all Chinese, it's just assembled…

[deleted]

Re: Drone firm DJI promises 'local data mode' to fend off US government's mooted ban

#67

Post by kube-system »

Aperocky wrote: post #56
libertine wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with you, I think there's something that should be pointed out: China stance on foreign companies doing business in China. Currently China wants all the perks of the open global market, while closing it's own. I don't understand how this is allowed.

Closing it's own as in? With the exception of internet giants, everything else seemed to be well represented in China. name a western brand of physical good that's not available in China. Granted that our lives are more software oriented in this forum, majority of the trade in this planet is decidedly not.

China is actually opening up their economy, but they still have quite a number of bans on foreign companies:

https://www.registrationchina.com/articles/china-negative-li...

Re: Drone firm DJI promises 'local data mode' to fend off US government's mooted ban

#68

Post by kube-system »

0xffff2 wrote: post #46
philips wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boeing does have UAV programs afaict. And from the article: > “The US Congress is considering banning the US federal government from using foreign-made drones as part of its 2021 National Defense Authorization Act,” reported Flight. A junior US defence minister, Ellen Lord, in charge of procurement, added to the aerospace magazine: “We looked at the fact that basically DJI from China had decimated our industrial base…

Boeing drones are things like the MQ-25 [0]. They don't compete with DJI. I'm a researcher (US government contractor) in the aerospace field, and they've been trying to ban us from using DJI drones for years. They keep pushing it back and making exceptions because it has been incredibly hard for us to find anything comparable that's made by a US company (and even then the hardware is all Chinese, it's just assembled…

Not a surprise, since I doubt many US companies can sell their drones sub-cost.

Re: Drone firm DJI promises 'local data mode' to fend off US government's mooted ban

#69

Post by kube-system »

zaroth wrote: post #27

I have a DJI Mavic Mini and I was very impressed with the hardware and software overall. My kids and I have had a lot of fun flying this little drone! It does log every flight to the cloud, showing the telemetry logs of exactly where the drone flew and what it sent and received along the way (not full video, just telemetry). I find the logs extremely cool to look over after the fact when analyzing a flight. Their ins…

"Fun with the kids" is a use-case with a very low need for confidentiality, integrity, and availability, and a very low risk of targeted attacks. The US federal government use-cases are obviously very different. Note that the "ban" in the article is not for consumers it is for the federal government.

Re: Drone firm DJI promises 'local data mode' to fend off US government's mooted ban

#70

Post by lacker »

coldtea wrote: post #44
libertine wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with you, I think there's something that should be pointed out: China stance on foreign companies doing business in China. Currently China wants all the perks of the open global market, while closing it's own. I don't understand how this is allowed.

> Currently China wants all the perks of the open global market, while closing it's own. I don't understand how this is allowed. That's the same for the US. When it suits them there's sanctions, embargoes, tariffs, and questioning/forbiding foreign companies, investments, etc.

It isn’t the same at all. China routinely bans American internet companies for no apparent reason. Whereas the vast majority of Chinese companies are allowed to sell into the US. No other country operates like China does, with such drastic anti-foreign policies.
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