Today there was an announcement from the drone company called DJI where they will be phasing out its requirements in various countries in demanding users to submit often personal details to unlock their drone products to enable people to fly in areas that they personally deem as dangerous. For example, areas around an airport. While this sounds like a novel idea, many professionals found this a nuisance as their restrictions don’t match local laws in many cases. Many of its competitors do not do this as it would be like you buying a car only to have to ask the company for permission to drive in certain areas.
Now whether or not you come from a perspective on how it’s good for companies to do this as they don’t want their products being misused or that it’s inappropriate, it does make you think how many times if you are a manufacturer of a product maybe it’s best you try and stay away from being the police or law maker. Instead, it’s probably better to just focus on making the product in general.
For this company I know they are currently in the midst of a lot of geopolitical issues in places like the US where their products may be banned. So perhaps this was potentially a reason considering they do have to collect personal information at times to unlock the products. Overall though, it’s not exactly a consumer friendly thing to do where when the competition starts introducing viable competing products people will be quick to remember these types of behavior to the point where one would b skeptical of the brand in general.