Anafi Drone
Review date: 11/02/2020
This little drone, built a bit like a bug, isn't cheap. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. In this case, you pay for 4k HDR video, fancy digital stabilization, a camera with an 180° view, 25-minutes of flight time, and some super smart AI that lets you pick a person to follow and then step back and let the drone do all the following. Fortunately with this pricey drone, you also get improved privacy and security features we've seen lacking in many of the cheaper consumer drones.
What could happen if something goes wrong
In years past when we reviewed consumer drones, too many of them had poor privacy and security. That's why it's nice to see the Parrot drone meet our Minimum Security Standards and take real steps to protect users' privacy. This drone costs $700, so you are paying a price to get that privacy and security. We would like to see more affordable consumer drones do a good job with privacy and security as well.
Privacy
Can it snoop on me?
Camera
Device: Yes
App: Yes
Microphone
Device: No
App: No
Tracks Location
Device: Yes
App: Yes
What is required to sign up?
Yes
Phone
No
Third party account
Yes
What data does it collect?
Personal
Name, email, date of birth, phone number, technical flight data
Biometric
Social
How can you control your data?
What is the company’s known track record for protecting users’ data?
No known incidents in the last 2 years.
Can this product be used offline?
User friendly privacy information?
Links to privacy information
Security
Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards?
Encryption
Anafi uses encryption by default. The drone uses WiFi to communicate with the remote controller and traffic is authenticated and encrypted using strong encryption. It uses WiFi PMF (Protected Management Frames). Parrot recently added SD Card encryption on some variants of the Anafi (Anafi USA & Security Edition).
Strong password
The drone sets its own secure WiFi network to communicate with the phone/remote controller, and authentication is handled by the strong encryption key. There is no remote access at all to the drone system.
Security updates
Software and firmware updates happen automatically for the drone and remote controller.
Manages vulnerabilities
Parrot has a bug bounty program and performs regular security audits of Parrot products and suppliers. Security patches are made rapidly available when vulnerabilities are identified.
Privacy policy
They have a privacy and security statement page.
Artificial Intelligence
Does the product use AI?
Does the AI use your personal data to make decisions about you?
Does the company allow users to see how the AI works?
The software used to control the drone uses AI to identify objects to fly around it or to follow it. Everything is computed on the device of the user and no information is sent to Parrot or third parties.
