After grounding approximately 800 drones in its fleet in Oct. 2019, the U.S. Department of the Interior formally banned its staff from using Chinese-made drones on Wednesday, Jan. 29.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt says the department decided to ban Chinese-made drones over potential espionage concerns, and over concerns that images taken with drones could be “valuable to foreign entities, organizations, and governments.”

In response to the ban, industry heavyweight DJI said that it is “extremely disappointed" by the order, which "inappropriately treats a technology's country of origin as a litmus test for its performance, security and reliability.”

The company added that it makes “some of the industry’s most safe, secure, and trusted drone platforms for commercial operators,” and noted that several entities, including U.S. cybersecurity consultants, U.S. federal agencies including the Department of Interior and the Department of Homeland Security, have independently tested and validated the security of its products designed specifically for the DOI and other U.S. government agencies.