A member of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday said he wants the US telecommunications regulator to begin the process of imposing new restrictions on Chinese drone maker SZ DJI Technology Co (大疆創新).
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said that the agency should takes steps toward adding DJI, the world’s largest dronemaker, to the so-called “Covered List” that would prohibit US Universal Service Fund money from being used to purchase its equipment.
DJI, which accounts for more than 50 percent of US drone sales, said that its “drones are safe and secure for critical and sensitive operations.”
“Our customers know that DJI drones remain the most capable and most affordable products for a wide variety of uses, including sensitive industrial and government work,” it said.
In March, the FCC designated five Chinese companies as posing a threat to national security under a 2019 law aimed at protecting US communications networks.
The FCC named Huawei Technologies Co (華為), ZTE Corp (中興), Hytera Communications Corp (海能達通訊), Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co (杭州海康威視數字技術) and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co (浙江大華技術).
The FCC has a separate ongoing effort to decide whether to continue approving equipment from entities on the Covered List for use in the US, Carr said.
“DJI drones and the surveillance technology on board these systems are collecting vast amounts of sensitive data — everything from high-resolution images of critical infrastructure to facial recognition technology and remote sensors that can measure an individual’s body temperature and heart rate,” Carr said in a statement. “We do not need an airborne version of Huawei.”
The FCC in consultation with national security agencies “should also consider whether there are additional entities that warrant closer scrutiny,” he said.
In December last year, DJI was added by the US Department of Commerce to the US government’s economic blacklist.
In January last year, the US Department of the Interior said that it was grounding its fleet of about 800 Chinese-made drones, and earlier halted additional purchases of such drones.
In May 2019, the US Department of Homeland Security warned US firms of the risks to company data from Chinese-made drones.
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