Can the FAA track your drone and match to you?

[Meta4]

I never that the faa, could or could not track me I said the the from the FAA said that's how they knew.

And the explanation from them that you quoted isn't plausible.
However they found you (probably through Youtube), it wasn't what he told you.

 

[drone photography]

I never that the faa, could or could not track me I said the the from the FAA said that's how they knew.

This is why I don't like forums, you tell people what happen to you and you get replys making you lo

And the explanation from them that you quoted isn't plausible.
However they found you (probably through Youtube), it wasn't what he told you.

was not on youtube

 

[Meta4]

This is why I don't like forums, you tell people what happen to you and you get replys making you lo

You don't like forums because the FAA guy told you a made up story that makes no sense and you don't like someone telling you that?

 

[Zigs]

Is your drone is communicating outside the US??
It can only manage to communicate with your controller from 1-2 miles away in good conditions.
It can't communicate with foreign countries.
Likewise your government has no way to track your Phantom unless they have some sophisticated equipment and are within range when you are flying.
Somehow I doubt that the government bothers to track every Phantom in the country .. or even yours.
For a start, I can't imaging any reason they would want to.

Perhaps one should say if your "app" is communicating would be more true. The choice is ours, paranoia or naivete.

 

[Neon Euc]

I'm guessing someone grassed you up and the FAA said they tracked you down to hide that persons identity. Let's say that they did manage to have software to track you down... Well... In order for that to work they will

1) have to know where you fly
2) know the exact day you fly
3) know the exact time you fly

Only way that can be done is if they actually see you, then load up their equipment.

I had some doughnut shouting all odds at me on YouTube saying be will grass me up to the FAA and police. I basically told him to F-off and told him to call the police... Pretty sure with all the terrorism, murder, rape, child offences going on the police will really REALLY drop all of that just to see me.

Ignore what you heard mate, seriously. Police have better things to do and the FAA only cares if your flying near an airport.

 

[stones]

Neon,
Just have to ask, what does the term "grass me up" mean? Don't think I've ever seen that phrase. Oh btw... Happy Bday!

 

[GMack]

I'm guessing someone grassed you up and the FAA said they tracked you down to hide that persons identity. Let's say that they did manage to have software to track you down... Well... In order for that to work they will

1) have to know where you fly
2) know the exact day you fly
3) know the exact time you fly

Only way that can be done is if they actually see you, then load up their equipment.

I had some doughnut shouting all odds at me on YouTube saying be will grass me up to the FAA and police. I basically told him to F-off and told him to call the police... Pretty sure with all the terrorism, murder, rape, child offences going on the police will really REALLY drop all of that just to see me.

Ignore what you heard mate, seriously. Police have better things to do and the FAA only cares if your flying near an airport.

DJI is constantly mining your flight data (I think GO has 10 ports open at times, and who knows what others when GO auto-launches in the background at times on my Android?) and has what they call "Event Data" if you read their EULA stuff. You can also read their "Privacy Policy" and see they have servers around the world and can provide information to law enforcement if requested. I wouldn't put it past the FAA to have open access to Yahoo's Flurry and the DJI event servers either. Their new GO 4 "Log-in or you can't fly beyond x" probably nails it down tighter.

"Event Data" collected is here: DJI Developer
"Privacy" is here: DJI Developer

Fwiw, I had two cops show up at my door on some RC plane matter the neighbors called in on. They do have time, trust me. Ain't had a night until you hear a rap of a nightstick on your door and "Open up. Police." Btw, I had a discussion with said neighbor's landlord too.

 

[Cometstorm]

Of course, there's nothing saying you HAVE to open, or even respond to, a knock on the door.

They likely won't make repeated visits for such low level complaints (pun intended!)

 

[K9VXV]

As long as you are not physically on someone else's property I am sure local police would of course come talk to you if they had a complaint but what local ordinances could they cite you for except harassment and trespass. Just step outside of your front door and close it behind you and then say "Sir I flew at 300 feet over the edge of my neighbors property around 3PM in calm conditions. For about 1 minute of my 20 minute flight. It is now 9:30PM, I will discontinue flying in that area, have a nice day." And then you can walk inside and close the door.

 

[Neon Euc]

Neon,
Just have to ask, what does the term "grass me up" mean? Don't think I've ever seen that phrase. Oh btw... Happy Bday!

Thanks dude [emoji16] "grassing up" is an English slang for being a snitch on someone lol

 

[K9VXV]

Thanks dude [emoji16] "grassing up" is an English slang for being a snitch on someone lol

Does that originate to mean someone who tells on someone who is on the grass for which they are told to keep off of?

 

[blackcrusader]

I will reply.. I was in ohio filming a charity bike run, Saturday b4 4th of July. Monday the FAA called me and I had to send in the video footage I had taken. Or ? So I ask the FAA guy how he knew where I was. He said, someone called in and they tracked me by the GPS ON the drone.

LOL the GPS on the drone? lol yeah right.

 

[aburkefl]

Nonsense. Urban legend. Let's hear from a single cited person this way. Reg no. Can be INSIDE Suav. Certainly not by camera; heck I can't even get clear shot of idiot that flies. over my house every weekend at 200ft! and his numbers are 2 ft tall.

I produced some videos involving a local city-owned park. Showed them to the Chamber of Commerce and they were all somewhat surprised when they saw my videos. Flying at about 125-feet above the ground and 150 to 175-feet away from the splash pool and playground, you can see there are people down there, but not well enough to identify who they are.

It didn't take long for them to realize that so many preconceived notions about snooping are basically BS. I pointed out to them that you *could* buy a drone w/camera and do some semi-serious snooping - but at a far, far greater cost than what I have invested in my P3P.

Camera or no camera, it's still just a hobby. Regardless of the fact that I could actually afford to spend $7,000 on one of these things, it's pretty hard to justify. I've already gone through several iterations of my wife saying "...you bought what?" (I spent much much more than that on our amateur radio equipment, but it was spent over time and she gets to use some of it!)

Art - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL

 

[Brian BB]

I find the refusal to accept how much DJI knows about what you're doing with their hardware very, very strange. Do the commenters above who think it is impossible that you're being tracked have any familiarity with the DJI software? Ever worked with the SDK? Ever done app development with it? They are extremely invasive about what they collect about you. Waaay beyond what is considered standard practice in the app development world. Of course they can know who is flying where. Now, are they reporting that to the government in real time? Are they actively tracking you every second, for some nefarious purpose? Naah, I can't imagine. But with the caveats that the details of the story may have been shifted a bit in the retelling, I find the story from "drone photography" to be 100% eminently plausible.

 

[Fester]

LOL the GPS on the drone? lol yeah right.

The bird's GPS coordinates are being broadcast from the bird to the controller. Anyone with the proper equipment can intercept and see the drones position, and your position as well on takeoff and landing. Probably track you in real time as well, if you're using a GPS enabled display device.

 

[blackcrusader]

The bird's GPS coordinates are being broadcast from the bird to the controller. Anyone with the proper equipment can intercept and see the drones position, and your position as well on takeoff and landing. Probably track you in real time as well, if you're using a GPS enabled display device.

Sure, the FAA is sending out people with tracking equipment. They follow you from your home and follow you till you launch point then setup tracking equipment to follow your drones flight path. The FAA wastes millions of dollars doing this of course. Works in theory until they realize you used Litchi and a pre planned way point mission that does not need the RC to be on after launch.

Oh well, I believe in fairy tales as well.

 

[Meta4]

The bird's GPS coordinates are being broadcast from the bird to the controller. Anyone with the proper equipment can intercept and see the drones position, and your position as well on takeoff and landing. Probably track you in real time as well, if you're using a GPS enabled display device.

That's anyone with the proper equipment who just happens to be close enough to where you are flying at the time you are flying and suspecting that there's going to be some activity that they need to monitor.
And that's no-one.

 

[Brian BB]

Sure, the FAA is sending out people with tracking equipment. They follow you from your home and follow you till you launch point then setup tracking equipment to follow your drones flight path. The FAA wastes millions of dollars doing this of course. Works in theory until they realize you used Litchi and a pre planned way point mission that does not need the RC to be on after launch.

Oh well, I believe in fairy tales as well.

So, just curious, which version of the Mobile SDK are you currently working with for your app development? Do you think anything since 3.5 has really been necessary? It sort of seems like they are spinning their wheels, and mucking things up, as they usually do. Are you an iOS or Android developer? (We are strictly android so far, which has lots of drawbacks actually, it probably would have been far better to go with iOS). Have you done much with the On Board SDK? We haven't, but are recently starting to work more with partners who use the Matrice 100, so will have to familiarize ourselves with that a bit, depending on their needs.

I mean, since you obviously are intimately familiar with everything DJI is doing under the hood...

 

[blackcrusader]

So, just curious, which version of the Mobile SDK are you currently working with for your app development? Do you think anything since 3.5 has really been necessary? It sort of seems like they are spinning their wheels, and mucking things up, as they usually do. Are you an iOS or Android developer? (We are strictly android so far, which has lots of drawbacks actually, it probably would have been far better to go with iOS). Have you done much with the On Board SDK? We haven't, but are recently starting to work more with partners who use the Matrice 100, so will have to familiarize ourselves with that a bit, depending on their needs.

I mean, since you obviously are intimately familiar with everything DJI is doing under the hood...

This topic is about what the FAA is supposedly doing not DJI.

 

[K9VXV]

I think it's easier to issue a subpoena to YouTube or any provider that can give you any relevant information about the suspected pilot rather than employ any type of easily accessible system. Not to say such a system isn't trivial to implement and very technically possible but I don't think an agency who relies heavily on access databases and large excel sheets on the regular is having the time to train and spend their limited resources on this yet. It's either still complaint driven or brought to their attention due to promotion of some kind. I have not seen any articles as of yet (and maybe I am missing them please link me) where a pilot has been warned or cited for flying in an area that they haven't been noticed flying in through some type of public medium. If we have an example of where FAA has used access to these logs or databases to harass a pilot who has been lawfully flying and has posted no video then we can say that there has to be a connection here. Now of course we know embedded meta data gives you away and it's logged with YouTube upon upload if embedded with the users IP but of course the metadata won't be here embedded in the frames of the video but usually someone complains back to them after seeing the video. So as long as it's a private link and their attention isn't called to it then how can they know? Match you? Of course, but with simple detective work? Right?