alt Hacker NewsThis ban has more to do with how much geodetic data is being transmitted to China and less to do with the actual drone technology. People flying DJI drones are mapping the US on China's behalf, and that too with great fidelity.
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> "People flying DJI drones are mapping the US"
I always thought the risk was more that such a drone fleet could be remotely commandeered for real-time updates on target locations. It's something that could only be done once, but wow, it would be a real advantage to the attacker.
Yet DJI drones don't automatically stream raw imagery or mapping data back to China by default
Google and others have already mapped practically everything. I don't buy that China is using access to DJI drones to map anything. Seriously, what data set can they provide that isn't already public domain?
Satellite synthetic aperture radar can have a resolution of like 6 inches. I can't imagine consumer grade drones are significantly improving on this, and even if they could do better I would question the utility of higher resolution data for anything military related.