Niche Apps & Games · Drone Software · Structural / no discrete incident
DJI GO / DJI Fly
Headline
DJI has been the subject of a years-long national security controversy and US restrictions, and the consumer-facing detail that gets lost in it is what a drone app actually holds…
Not independently verified. Verification status: Unverified - heuristic first draft. Publish state: draft unverified.
DJI has been the subject of a years-long national security controversy and US restrictions, and the consumer-facing detail that gets lost in it is what a drone app actually holds: flight logs are precise three-dimensional location histories with timestamps, plus the imagery captured along the way, plus the operator's identity from account registration. A hobbyist's flight log describes their home, their neighbours' property and their routine. DJI is a Chinese company, so the structural analysis in the DeepSeek and Moonshot rows of the LLM Providers tab applies - national security and intelligence law obligations that no terms of service can contract around. Restrictions are governmental determinations, not adjudicated findings of misuse, and the distinction should be preserved.
- Severity
- Evidence tierUnassigned
- Claims confirmed
- Last verified2026-08-04
Primary source. None recorded — Unverified - heuristic first draft.
Terms
Arbitration
SEPARATE, GENUINELY BALANCING FINDING: DJI CITES MULTIPLE SECURITY AUDITS (Kivu Consulting, FTI Consulting, Booz Allen Hamilton, and US government testing including by the Department of the Interior and Idaho National Laboratory) as finding NO EVIDENCE that DJI drones transmit US customer data to China — and DJI states that data collected in the US is stored on US-based servers, and that DJI's 'Local Data Mode' fully air-gaps the drone from any internet connection when enabled. DJI has publicly argued that competing US drone manufacturers are lobbying heavily for bans specifically to eliminate cheaper, more capable Chinese competition, a claim DJI's critics dispute.
Data sharing
MAJOR, YEARS-LONG NATIONAL SECURITY CONTROVERSY: DJI (the world's largest drone maker, with a civilian market share commonly estimated at ~70%) has been placed on the US Commerce Department's ENTITY LIST (2020) over documented ties to human-rights abuses — including footage from a DJI drone reportedly used to document forced marches of shackled, blindfolded Uyghur detainees in Xinjiang, China. The US Army banned DJI drones outright (2017) citing 'cyber vulnerabilities'; DHS/FBI have separately warned Chinese-made drones may expose 'sensitive information to PRC authorities' under China's National Intelligence Law, which legally obligates Chinese companies to cooperate with government data requests. On DECEMBER 22, 2025, the FCC added all foreign-produced drones (UAS) and UAS critical components to its Covered List, barring NEW FCC equipment authorizations for future models (effectively including all future DJI models) while previously authorized models may still be sold and operated, and separately listed DJI and Autel communications/video-surveillance equipment; multiple states (reportedly including Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee) have separately restricted state-agency use of Chinese-made drones specifically.
Fees and billing
Not itemized this pass.
Contacts
Privacy contact. Not recorded.
Legal notice. Not verified this pass. If publicly traded: SEC Form 10-K cover page gives the official corporate address; the Secretary of State business-entity search in the state of incorporation gives the registered agent, which must accept service. If private: the state registered agent is usually the only reliable route.
Mailing address. Not recorded.
Evidence
No claims have been itemized for this row yet.
No sources are on file for this row yet.
Source vault
Link status: Candidate - not yet fetched
| Document | Last fetch | |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy policy dji.com/policy/privacy | Not fetched yet | NO (HTML only) |
| Terms of service dji.com/policy/terms-of-use | Not fetched yet | NO (HTML only) |
| Website No URL recorded | Not fetched yet | — |
| Primary source No URL recorded Verification: Unverified - heuristic first draft | Not fetched yet | — |
Enforcement
No enforcement actions are linked to this row.
State statute
No HQ state on file, so no state statute applies by headquarters.