Recreational drones made by Da-Jiang Innovations, or DJI, a Chinese technology company, have been reported to have been detected in restricted airspace over Washington, D.C.
In recent months, DJI drones have been detected flying over no-go zones around the U.S. capital, according to Politico. Users with simple workarounds are manipulating drones, as they are designed with geofencing restrictions to prevent them from entering sensitive and highly-classified locations.
The U.S. national security agencies are concerned that this trend could become a new tool for international espionage.
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Rachel Stohl, the vice president of research programs at Stimson Center think tank, said these could be just innocent data collection. Stohl said that the potential is that eventually they could be more dangerous.
The report noted that DJI doesn't have any control over how users fly drones after they buy the product.
DJI is the world's largest drone manufacturer. A sizable portion of recreational drones sold in the U.S. is among its products.