Research Framework on Right‑Confirmation, Collection & Circulation, Data Security and Compliance Governance of Low‑Altitude Economy Data Elements
Research Institutions: BUCKHOUSE Intelligent Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., BUCKHOUSE Low‑Altitude Economy Research Institute, BUCKHOUSE Global Low‑Altitude Economy Industry Network, BUCKHOUSE China Low‑Altitude Economy Industry Network, BUCKHOUSE International Low‑Altitude Economy Cooperation Network, BUCKHOUSE Low‑Altitude Manufacturing Platform, BUCKHOUSE Low‑Altitude Flight Platform, BUCKHOUSE Low‑Altitude Support Platform, BUCKHOUSE Low‑Altitude Infrastructure Platform, BUCKHOUSE Low‑Altitude Industry Supporting Platform, BUCKHOUSE Low‑Altitude Cross‑border Integration Platform
Abstract
As a vital component of new‑quality productive forces, the low‑altitude economy is transitioning from demonstration application to large‑scale industrial implementation. Industrial activities across the full value chain including aircraft operations, take‑off‑and‑landing infrastructure, airspace management, urban operation, emergency inspection and low‑altitude logistics generate massive multi‑source heterogeneous low‑altitude data elements. Low‑altitude‑economy data elements feature overlapping public, commercial and personal‑privacy attributes, covering multiple regulatory domains such as airspace administration, geographic information, transportation, public security and cyber data security. Industrial practices are confronted with prominent challenges including ambiguous ownership boundaries, fragmented collection standards, insufficient circulation and transaction mechanisms, complex security risks and imperfect compliance‑governance systems. These bottlenecks hinder low‑altitude data from transforming into new‑type producible elements that can be right‑confirmed, circulated and securely utilized.
Based on China’s industrial practices, existing legal‑regulatory frameworks and local pilot experiences, this report defines the connotation, classification and value characteristics of low‑altitude‑economy data elements. It analyzes full‑chain pain points in right‑confirmation, collection, circulation and security governance, establishes rule systems for right‑confirmation of low‑altitude data elements, sorts out technical specifications for full‑life‑cycle data collection, designs multi‑level operational mechanisms for data circulation, constructs risk‑prevention architectures for data security, and delivers an integrated compliance‑governance framework covering institutions, stakeholders, technologies, platforms and supervision. Implementation pathways and countermeasure suggestions are put forward for industrial roll‑out. This report provides theoretical references and practical guidance for regulatory authorities, low‑altitude operators, infrastructure service providers and data service organizations in conducting governance of low‑altitude data elements.
Keywords: Low‑Altitude Economy; Data Elements; Data Right‑Confirmation; Data Circulation; Data Security; Compliance Governance
1. Introduction
1.1 Research Background
China has continuously rolled out policies to boost low‑altitude‑economy development. The Interim Regulations on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight Administration have come into force. Multiple local low‑altitude‑reform pilots are underway. Scenarios including urban air mobility, UAV inspection, low‑altitude logistics and low‑altitude cultural‑tourism are accelerating commercialization. The inventory of low‑altitude aircraft keeps rising rapidly, generating massive datasets covering flight dynamics, airspace environment, aerial mapping, infrastructure operation and business execution. Unlike conventional digital‑economy data, low‑altitude data is produced within three‑dimensional airspace alongside aircraft movement. A single dataset frequently integrates public airspace‑resource information, corporate operational data, personal portrait‑privacy information and sensitive geospatial data, featuring diverse sources, overlapping attributes and wide‑ranging sensitivity levels.
Reforms toward market‑oriented allocation of data elements are deepening, with foundational systems covering data property rights, circulation‑transaction and security governance gradually taking shape. Nevertheless, specialized rule supplies targeting the distinctive three‑dimensional low‑altitude scenario remain insufficient. In industrial practice, one single UAV mission yields airspace‑scheduling data, aircraft status data, aerial‑image data and ground vertiport operational data. Stakeholders include government regulatory platforms, flight‑operation enterprises, equipment manufacturers, infrastructure operators and third‑party data service providers. Unified standards for dividing rights over identical datasets are absent. Data silos prevail, and high‑value low‑altitude data is largely confined inside enterprises and platforms, failing to deliver industrial value via compliant circulation. Meanwhile, risks such as unauthorized data collection, data leakage, illegal cross‑border data transfer and privacy infringement keep emerging.
Several pilot cities have launched preliminary explorations on low‑altitude‑data administration by issuing local normative documents, building integrated low‑altitude supervision‑and‑service platforms and exploring data aggregation and sharing mechanisms. However, nationwide unified systems for right‑confirmation‑and‑registration, collection standards, circulation‑transaction and security compliance for low‑altitude data have not been fully established. The industry urgently needs a tailored governance framework for low‑altitude‑data elements to balance security control and industrial innovation, and realize low‑altitude data with clear ownership, standardized collection, orderly circulation, controllable security and released value.
1.2 Research Significance
Theoretically, this report extends data‑element theories to three‑dimensional airspace scenarios. Targeting intertwined public‑commercial‑personal attributes of low‑altitude data, it clarifies property‑right boundaries of different categories of low‑altitude data, improves full‑life‑cycle governance theories for low‑altitude‑scenario data, and fills research gaps in systematic frameworks for low‑altitude‑economy data elements.
Practically, the integrated framework of right‑confirmation, collection‑circulation and security compliance can serve as reference for local governments constructing low‑altitude‑data governance systems. It helps low‑altitude manufacturers, flight‑operation service providers and low‑altitude‑infrastructure platforms clarify rights‑and‑obligations and formulate internal data‑compliance management systems. It offers scenario‑specific references for data‑exchanges conducting transaction businesses of low‑altitude data elements, facilitates assetization of low‑altitude data and promotes high‑quality development of the low‑altitude economy.
1.3 Research Scope and Methodology
Research objects cover all data elements generated across the full industrial chain of the low‑altitude economy, including aircraft operation, airspace‑resource administration, low‑altitude‑infrastructure maintenance, low‑altitude‑business application and industrial supporting services. The research spans the full lifecycle: right‑confirmation, collection, storage, processing, circulation, utilization and destruction. Adopted methodologies include policy‑text analysis, industrial‑case analysis and scenario‑comparative analysis. National and local laws and policies are reviewed, combined with construction practices of low‑altitude pilot platforms in Hefei, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Guiyang and other cities. Public research outputs from China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and law firms are referenced to summarize practical pain points, extract framework systems and propose implementation pathways.
2. Connotation, Classification and Industrial Characteristics of Low‑Altitude‑Economy Data Elements
2.1 Connotation of Low‑Altitude‑Economy Data Elements
Low‑altitude‑economy data elements refer to digital‑information sets generated, collected and stored by various low‑altitude aircraft, low‑altitude infrastructures, airspace‑management systems and business‑application systems during low‑altitude‑flight activities, infrastructure maintenance and industrial operations. They constitute critical production factors driving low‑altitude‑flight scheduling, safety supervision, commercial operation and industrial innovation. Distinct from conventional two‑dimensional internet data, low‑altitude data features three‑dimensional spatial attributes and heavy time‑dependence for value. Most datasets are real‑time dynamic data whose sensitivity changes dynamically with geographic locations and flight scenarios. One dataset may simultaneously carry public‑administration value, commercial‑industrial value and personal‑information value, resulting in complicated ownership relations.
2.2 Classification of Low‑Altitude‑Economy Data Elements
Based on data sources and attributes, low‑altitude‑economy data elements fall into three layers: core flight‑data layer, supporting‑infrastructure‑data layer and business‑derived‑data layer.
First, the core flight‑data layer consists of fundamental data directly produced by low‑altitude‑flight activities, which is the core object for safety control. It includes aircraft identity, position, altitude, speed, heading, battery status and other flight‑dynamic data; operator qualification and real‑name registration information; real‑time airspace status, meteorological conditions, electromagnetic environment and no‑fly restriction information. Featuring high real‑time performance, such data bears direct relevance to flight safety and public security, following the management principle of one file for one aircraft, one record for one flight.
Second, the supporting‑infrastructure‑data layer covers datasets safeguarding low‑altitude operations, including operation logs of vertiports, UAV nests, charging‑and‑replacement facilities, communication‑navigation‑surveillance facilities, low‑altitude‑route‑planning data and ground‑support‑platform operation‑and‑maintenance data. This layer suffers low standardization and prominent cross‑entity fragmentation.
Third, the business‑derived‑data layer refers to business data collected by aircraft during mission execution, including aerial‑survey‑and‑mapping images, inspection videos, logistics‑order data, cultural‑tourism service data and emergency‑rescue collected data. This category delivers the highest commercial value, yet contains abundant geospatial information and personal‑privacy images, becoming the priority for right‑confirmation and circulation governance.
From the legal‑attribute perspective, data can be divided into public low‑altitude data, corporate operational data, personal‑information data, important data and core data. Public low‑altitude data is mostly held by government authorities, such as airspace‑control rules, public meteorological data and basic archives of public take‑off‑and‑landing infrastructures. Corporate data is generated by aircraft operators, manufacturers and platform service providers in business operations. Personal‑information data includes natural‑person portraits and personal‑location information passively captured during flights. Important and core low‑altitude data covers geospatial and sensitive‑zone aerial‑imaging data related to national and public security, which requires top‑tier security‑protection obligations.
2.3 Unique Industrial Characteristics of Low‑Altitude‑Economy Data Elements
1. Compound overlapping attributes: Datasets produced by one flight mission frequently integrate public airspace information, corporate business data and personal‑privacy images. Multiple stakeholders hold interests in one single dataset, making conventional internet‑data right‑confirmation logic inapplicable.
2. Strong spatiotemporal dependency: Data value is tightly bound to timestamps and three‑dimensional coordinates. Dynamic flight data depreciates rapidly over time. Identical datasets show drastically different security‑risk levels between ordinary urban zones and restricted military‑control zones.
3. Decentralized generation and distribution: Massive distributed aircraft collect data across geographies. Data‑generation terminals spread widely, bringing challenges for centralized governance.
4. Conductive security risks: Tampered or falsified low‑altitude data may directly trigger aircraft loss‑of‑control and collisions. Data‑security hazards can be converted into physical personal‑and‑property‑safety risks.
3. Development Status and Full‑Chain Prominent Pain Points of China’s Low‑Altitude‑Economy Data Elements
3.1 Industrial Development Status
Institutional foundations take shape as fundamental laws + special administrative regulations + industrial rules + local pilot policies. The Cybersecurity Law, Data Security Law and Personal Information Protection Law constitute the legal cornerstone for data governance. The Interim Regulations on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight Administration imposes constraints on UAV real‑name registration, flight‑dynamic reporting and external data output. Civil‑aviation authorities promulgate rules governing civil‑aviation data administration and flight‑dynamic‑data management. Zhuhai released China’s first local special administrative document for low‑altitude data. Hefei, Shenzhen and Guiyang have built integrated low‑altitude‑supervision platforms to explore data aggregation and sharing.
In industrial practice, domestic low‑altitude‑related enterprises are growing rapidly. Aircraft manufacturers, flight‑operation service providers and low‑altitude‑platform enterprises generate massive datasets. Several regions construct low‑altitude‑data‑sharing platforms for internal government UAV‑data sharing. Nevertheless, market‑oriented allocation of low‑altitude data elements remains in its infancy. Nationwide right‑confirmation‑and‑registration mechanisms are not yet rolled out. Specialized low‑altitude‑data trading products are scarce. Most enterprises lack complete internal low‑altitude‑data‑governance systems with uneven compliance capacities.
3.2 Core Pain Points in Data Right‑Confirmation
First, ambiguous ownership boundaries with no unified rules for intertwined multi‑party rights. For one flight mission, aircraft hardware belongs to enterprises while airspace resources are public. Aerial‑imaging data is generated by aircraft sensors yet may contain public geospatial resources and civilian portraits. Public interests, corporate property rights and personal‑information rights interweave. Existing laws contain no detailed ownership‑division provisions tailored for low‑altitude scenarios. Industrial disputes frequently emerge: whether aerial‑imaging data collected by aircraft belongs to equipment manufacturers, flight operators or mission entrusting parties; whether enterprises are entitled to process and externally circulate public airspace‑scheduling data.
Second, difficulties in identifying right‑confirmation objects. Expired, sensor‑fault‑generated or illegally‑grabbed low‑altitude data are ineligible for right‑confirmation. Pre‑verification standards for right‑confirmation are absent in the industry, risking incorporating invalid or illegal data into assetization scope and triggering security hazards.
Third, lack of nationwide unified carriers for low‑altitude‑data right‑confirmation‑and‑registration. Only a small number of local pilots explore registration practices. No national unified registration platform exists, leaving corporate data assets without official certification and valid property credentials for subsequent circulation and transactions.
Fourth, undefined right boundaries may induce data‑monopoly risks. Leading operators hold massive airspace‑flight data. Over‑biased property‑right rules toward collecting enterprises may block essential public derivative data from industry access, erecting data barriers and hindering small‑and‑medium‑sized market participants.
3.3 Core Pain Points in Data Collection
First, fragmented collection standards with inconsistent data formats across manufacturers. Diverse UAV brands and low‑altitude platforms deliver divergent data fields, encoding formats and reporting interfaces. Cross‑equipment and cross‑platform interoperability of flight‑dynamic and infrastructure data is obstructed, producing numerous data silos. Certain lightweight aircraft lack standardized data‑retention interfaces, making full preservation of raw flight‑data impossible.
Second, blurred compliance boundaries for collection behaviors. UAV operations above cities passively capture images of pedestrians and residential buildings. Many enterprises fail to distinguish business‑target‑data active collection from incidental personal‑information collection and do not fulfill authorization obligations for personal‑information processing. Some entities collect high‑precision geospatial data without corresponding qualifications.
Third, unclear division of collection‑subject liabilities. Multiple parties including aircraft hardware manufacturers, UAV pilots, operating enterprises and entrusting parties participate in flights. Liabilities for illegal collection are hard to assign once violations occur.
Fourth, insufficient integrity of collected‑data retention. Some enterprises shorten raw‑flight‑data retention cycles to cut storage costs, leaving no complete raw data for traceability and review upon flight accidents.
3.4 Core Pain Points in Data Circulation
First, imperfect circulation rule systems with blurred boundaries between public‑data sharing, corporate‑data transactions and data services. Scopes and modalities for opening public low‑altitude data to industrial entities lack inventories. Compliance operational guidelines for external transactions of corporate proprietary low‑altitude data are insufficient.
Second, missing value‑evaluation mechanisms. Low‑altitude data varies drastically in timeliness: real‑time flight‑dynamic data carries high value while expired data depreciates fast. Industry‑adapted frameworks for data‑quality and value assessment are absent, restraining transaction implementation.
Third, insufficient circulation channels. General domestic data exchanges lack special trading sectors for low‑altitude scenarios. Enterprises mostly rely on offline‑agreement‑based data transfer without credible third‑party circulation carriers.
Fourth, prominent cross‑border‑circulation risks. Low‑altitude aerial images contain massive sensitive geospatial information. Enterprises struggle to identify which low‑altitude datasets fall under cross‑border control, facing risks of illegally transmitting important geospatial data overseas.
3.5 Pain Points in Data Security and Compliance Governance
First, difficulties in implementing data classification‑and‑grading. Low‑altitude‑data risks shift dynamically with flight positions. Conventional static data‑classification models cannot adapt to dynamic airspace scenarios. Enterprises find it hard to judge in real‑time whether a dataset qualifies as important data.
Second, shortcomings in technical protection. Communication links of numerous lightweight UAVs are weakly protected. Flight‑dynamic data faces hijacking, tampering and theft risks during flights. Small‑and‑medium‑sized enterprises invest inadequately in security for storing low‑altitude business data.
Third, complicated liability chains for multiple stakeholders. Regulatory authorities, platform operators, aircraft enterprises, service providers and end‑users do not have clearly‑defined security liabilities. Parties tend to shift blames upon data‑leakage incidents.
Fourth, tensions between compliance‑system supply and industrial innovation. Emergency‑rescue and other special scenarios demand rapid collection and invocation of low‑altitude data. Overly rigid approval workflows may impair emergency‑response efficiency. Balancing security control and rapid utilization in emergency scenarios constitutes a major practical compliance challenge.
4. Construction of Right‑Confirmation System for Low‑Altitude‑Economy Data Elements
4.1 General Principles for Right‑Confirmation
Four foundational principles govern the construction of the low‑altitude‑data right‑confirmation system.
1. Public‑interest priority principle: For data concerning national security, airspace public‑administration and public security, public interests rank first. Property‑right settings shall not undermine public‑security interests.
2. Scenario‑oriented classified right‑confirmation principle: Reject one‑size‑fits‑all property‑right models for all low‑altitude data. Differentiate public data, corporate data and personal‑information data and divide rights according to business scenarios. Do not adopt “collector owns everything” as the sole right‑confirmation logic.
3. Right‑obligation equivalence principle: Entities obtaining data‑related property rights shall bear corresponding obligations for data security, privacy protection and data retention.
4. Denial of right‑confirmation for illegal‑source data principle: Low‑altitude data obtained via illegal collection, theft or tampering shall not be registered for right‑confirmation and shall not be recognized as data assets.
4.2 Ownership‑Division Rules for Classified Data
Public low‑altitude data: Airspace‑control information, public meteorological data, basic archives of public take‑off‑and‑landing infrastructures and public‑business data generated by government‑affiliated flight missions are owned by the state, administered by competent authorities. Public low‑altitude data may be opened unconditionally or conditionally to industrial entities following open‑data inventories. Enterprises are prohibited from directly trading raw public low‑altitude data as proprietary assets. Enterprises may process publicly‑acquired public low‑altitude data to form derivative datasets, and enjoy property rights over value‑added processed outputs.
Corporate low‑altitude data: Non‑public raw business data lawfully collected and generated by low‑altitude operators, manufacturers and infrastructure service providers via compliant equipment and flight missions, such as aircraft‑equipment operation logs, operational‑and‑maintenance data for corporate‑owned vertiports and aerial‑imaging data from commercial‑entrusted missions. Property rights over raw collected data belong to collecting‑and‑operating enterprises. Under entrustment scenarios, entrusting parties and entrusted flight enterprises shall stipulate usage rights and transfer rights over mission‑produced datasets via contracts. In absence of written agreements, property rights over raw data rest with entrusted collecting enterprises, while entrusting parties obtain usage rights within business‑purpose scopes.
Low‑altitude data containing personal information: Personal‑portrait and personal‑location information captured during flights does not transfer ownership. Natural persons shall enjoy statutory personal‑information rights. Enterprises may process such information only within necessary‑business scopes and upon obtaining authorization, and shall not circulate personal‑information fragments decoupled from business purposes. Incidentally‑captured personal images from flights must undergo desensitization and de‑identification before dataset circulation.
Important and core low‑altitude data: Ownership shall follow above‑mentioned rules regardless of whether collected by government or corporate entities. Nevertheless, processing, circulation, external provision and cross‑border transfer must strictly comply with national important‑data‑protection systems and fulfill mandatory obligations such as security assessment.
4.3 Design of Low‑Altitude‑Data Right‑Confirmation‑and‑Registration Mechanism
Build a national master‑registration platform plus local sub‑nodes system for low‑altitude‑data right‑confirmation‑and‑registration to conduct evidentiary registration for corporate data assets. Registration is not the sole precondition for ownership validity, yet registration certificates serve as critical evidentiary credentials for data transactions, pledges and rights‑defense.
Registration objects: Lawfully‑obtained and asset‑valuable low‑altitude datasets of enterprises; illegal‑source or invalid‑faulty datasets shall be rejected for registration.
Registration contents: Dataset basic descriptions, data‑source explanations, collection scenarios, data types, desensitization status, ownership agreements, security‑risk levels and right‑restriction statements.
Registration validity: Registration institutions conduct formal compliance verification without guaranteeing substantive authenticity. Electronic evidentiary certificates are generated upon registration completion for verification in subsequent circulation‑transaction procedures.
Negative list for right‑confirmation‑and‑registration: Data obtained through illegal intrusion; data with untraceable original‑collection processes; severely expired datasets without utilization value; datasets containing substantial identifiable personal information that cannot be de‑identified.
4.4 Supporting Right‑restriction Mechanisms for Right‑Confirmation
Even for data over which enterprises hold property rights, right boundaries shall apply. First, national security prevails: corporate‑held low‑altitude data may be lawfully requisitioned for national‑security or public‑emergency responses. Second, data property rights shall not be abused to erect barriers refusing industry access to essential public‑derived data guaranteeing flight safety. Third, property rights over datasets containing personal information shall not override personal‑information‑protection laws.
5. Full‑Life‑Cycle Collection‑Specification System for Low‑Altitude‑Economy Data Elements
5.1 General Collection Principles
Lawfulness and legitimacy, minimization and necessity, complete traceability, security and controllability. Collection activities shall serve legitimate business purposes without exceeding business scopes. Incidental collection of personal privacy and sensitive geospatial information shall be minimized. Information covering collection sources, equipment, timestamps and flight missions shall be fully retained to realize full‑link traceability.
5.2 Division of Collection Liabilities among Multiple Stakeholders
Aircraft‑manufacturer liabilities: Deliver standardized data‑output interfaces upon equipment delivery to guarantee complete export and retention of raw flight‑dynamic data. Hardware‑level shielding of flight‑log‑recording functions is prohibited. Basic equipment‑end data‑security protection capacities shall be specified.
Flight‑operation enterprises (primary collection implementers): Bear primary compliance liabilities for collection activities, formulate internal collection‑management systems. Evaluate collection scopes and predict risks of capturing personal‑information or geospatial‑sensitive data prior to flight missions. Standardize authorization and desensitization workflows, fully store raw collected data and comply with statutory retention periods.
Mission entrusting parties: Clarify data‑collection boundaries, data rights and privacy‑protection obligations in commission contracts, and shall not demand illegal collection from entrusted parties.
Regulatory platforms: Receive and verify reported flight‑dynamic data and supervise fulfillment of corporate data‑reporting obligations.
5.3 Technical and Business Specifications for Scenario‑based Collection
Commercial inspection and mapping scenarios: Plan flight routes in advance to avoid dense residential zones and sensitive areas. Desensitize collected portrait‑containing images after mission completion. Mapping operations must obtain corresponding mapping qualifications.
Government‑affairs and emergency‑rescue scenarios: Data collected by government‑service UAVs shall be aggregated into government‑affairs low‑altitude platforms. Emergency scenarios may simplify partial pre‑approval procedures in accordance with emergency‑response laws. Traceability and archiving shall be completed afterwards. Images collected in emergency responses shall be strictly confined to emergency‑disposal usage and shall not be unnecessarily disseminated externally.
Urban low‑altitude logistics and low‑altitude cultural‑tourism scenarios: Aircraft passively capture surrounding environments during operations. Operators shall inform the public of collection risks within product agreements. Optimize sensor‑collection ranges technically to reduce capture of irrelevant personal information.
5.4 Specifications for Data Quality and Retention Management
Promote compatibility of flight‑dynamic‑data reporting fields across multi‑manufacturer aircraft via industry‑recommended unified data‑field standards. Raw flight‑data shall be fully retained as traceability evidence for flight accidents and safety incidents. Distinguish raw datasets and processed derivative datasets: raw data shall not be arbitrarily tampered. Processing logs recording manipulation procedures shall be preserved for derivative datasets.
5.5 Compliance‑risk Prevention and Control Points in Collection Links
Prioritize preventing over‑scope collection, unqualified mapping collection and unauthorized capture of personal portraits. Enterprises shall establish pre‑mission assessment mechanisms to conduct risk evaluation of collected contents for each flight mission.
6. Multi‑level Operational Mechanisms for Low‑Altitude‑Economy‑Data‑Element Circulation
Low‑altitude‑data circulation covers five modes: internal sharing and opening of public data, inter‑enterprise data sharing, data‑product transactions, data‑service output and cross‑border flow. Distinct rules apply for each mode.
6.1 Sharing and Opening Mechanism for Public Low‑Altitude Data
For government‑held public low‑altitude data, adopt a public‑low‑altitude‑data‑opening‑inventory system categorized into unconditional opening, conditional opening and non‑opening. Unconditionally‑opened data such as public airspace rules and meteorological data may be directly accessed by enterprises. Conditionally‑opened data requires enterprises to submit usage applications with restricted scenarios and prohibits secondary resale. Data related to national security shall not be opened externally.
Build cross‑regional data‑sharing channels among local low‑altitude‑supervision platforms to realize data coordination for cross‑prefecture‑level flights. Realize low‑altitude‑data sharing among government departments including public security, emergency response, transportation and civil aviation to support joint supervision and emergency disposal.
6.2 Inter‑enterprise Data‑circulation Modes
Mode 1: Data sharing. Enterprises sign agreements permitting dataset usage only for designated business scenarios by counterparties and banning secondary redistribution.
Mode 2: Data‑product transactions. Right‑confirmed‑and‑desensitized low‑altitude datasets and data products are traded on data exchanges. Trading objects are mainly processed derivative datasets. Direct transactions of raw non‑desensitized aerial‑imaging original footage are in principle prohibited.
Mode 3: Data‑service output. Enterprises refrain from delivering datasets directly. Low‑altitude‑data services are output via interfaces and APIs. End‑users obtain analytical results through interface invocations while raw data remains stored on service‑provider sides. This is the preferred circulation pattern for the low‑altitude industry to mitigate risks of raw‑data leakage.
Given heavy timeliness impacts on low‑altitude‑data value, transaction contracts shall explicitly stipulate data timeliness, data‑quality standards, usage scopes and clauses prohibiting secondary transfer.
6.3 Reference Dimensions for Low‑Altitude‑Data Value Evaluation
Four dimensions for value assessment: 1. Timeliness: real‑time flight‑dynamic data bears far higher value than historical expired data; 2. Scarcity: datasets collected in special geographies and scenarios deliver higher scarcity; 3. Data quality: completeness, accuracy and standardization level; 4. Security‑risk level: higher sensitivity brings stricter circulation constraints. Data‑storage volume alone shall not serve as the primary pricing benchmark.
6.4 Construction of Circulation Intermediaries and Credible Circulation Carriers
Encourage data exchanges to launch special sectors for low‑altitude‑economy data, building credible trading environments supporting verification of right‑confirmation‑and‑registration certificates, compliance review for desensitization and transaction evidentiary recording. Develop third‑party data‑compliance service agencies providing desensitization, risk assessment and compliance‑authentication services for low‑altitude datasets. Scale up privacy‑computing and secure‑multi‑party‑computing technologies to achieve data availability without data visibility, enabling collaborative data applications without transferring raw datasets and mitigating circulation‑security risks.
6.5 Regulatory Rules for Cross‑border Flow
Aerial‑imaging and geospatial‑related low‑altitude data belong to high‑risk cross‑border domains. Enterprises shall conduct cross‑border‑data‑security assessments before data export. Important data shall not be arbitrarily exported. General non‑sensitive statistical derivative low‑altitude datasets for overseas output must undergo cross‑border‑compliance review. Raw aerial‑imaging footage and high‑precision geospatial low‑altitude data shall be strictly controlled for external output. Unauthorized provision to overseas institutions is prohibited.
7. Risk‑prevention‑and‑control System for Low‑Altitude‑Data Security
7.1 Identification of Major Security Risks
Technical risks: Aircraft‑communication‑link hijacking and tampering, falsified flight‑dynamic data triggering mis‑scheduling and flight accidents; storage‑system vulnerabilities causing dataset leakage; leakage of massive historical aerial‑imaging data leading to geospatial‑information disclosure.
Business risks: Insufficient desensitization during dataset circulation inducing personal‑privacy leakage; internal staff illegally exporting and reselling low‑altitude business data.
Supply‑chain risks: Backdoors embedded in aircraft hardware and software supply‑chains enabling unauthorized interception of data during collection and transmission.
Derivative risks: Malicious utilization of low‑altitude datasets for geospatial mapping and snooping on sensitive zones, endangering national security.
7.2 Classification‑and‑grading Security‑protection Framework
Implement differentiated protection based on data classification‑and‑grading.
Level‑1 ordinary public low‑altitude data: basic access‑permission control and conventional security protection.
Level‑2 general corporate‑business low‑altitude data: access‑permission management, log auditing and backup‑and‑recovery.
Level‑3 important low‑altitude data: enforce important‑data‑protection systems, strengthen access‑control and security auditing, conduct regular risk assessments and prohibit arbitrary external provision.
Level‑4 core low‑altitude data: top‑tier protection, strict limits on processing personnel and rigorous external‑output governance.
Address special features of low‑altitude dynamic data by establishing dynamic‑risk‑identification mechanisms. Security‑protection levels shall be automatically elevated for datasets when flight‑collection locations shift to sensitive restricted zones.
7.3 Technical‑security‑protection System
Terminal side: Reinforce low‑altitude aircraft hardware, encrypt communication links to prevent in‑flight data hijacking. Complete collection logs shall be recorded on equipment terminals.
Transmission side: Encrypt the whole transmission process for reported flight‑dynamic data to resist tampering and interception during transmission.
Storage side: Classified storage, encrypted storage for sensitive data, full‑link access‑log retention and regular backups.
Application‑and‑circulation side: Deploy privacy‑computing, data‑desensitization and watermark‑traceability technologies. Digital watermarks shall be embedded in externally‑output data products to trace leakage sources upon data breaches.
7.4 Full‑chain Security‑management Mechanisms
Enterprises shall formulate internal low‑altitude‑data‑security‑management systems, designate security‑responsible persons and organize staff security training. Conduct risk self‑inspections covering collection, storage, processing and external‑provision links. Establish emergency‑response plans for security incidents. Activate disposal workflows and report to regulatory authorities upon data‑leakage events.
For supply‑chain security, perform supply‑chain‑security assessments during procurement of aircraft and software platforms to mitigate hardware‑and‑software backdoor risks.
8. Integrated Compliance‑Governance Framework for Low‑Altitude‑Economy Data Elements
The low‑altitude‑data compliance‑governance framework forms a closed‑loop system consisting of five layers: institutional‑rule layer, multi‑stakeholder‑governance layer, technical‑platform‑support layer, full‑life‑cycle‑business‑compliance layer, supervision‑and‑sanction layer.
8.1 Institutional‑rule Layer
Construct a five‑tier institutional system: laws‑administrative‑regulations‑departmental‑rules‑industrial‑standards‑local‑detailed‑rules.
Legal dimension: Enforce foundational requirements of the Data Security Law, Personal Information Protection Law, Cybersecurity Law and Civil Aviation Law of the People’s Republic of China.
Administrative‑regulation dimension: Implement the Interim Regulations on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight Administration and Regulations on Cyber‑data‑Security‑Administration. Promote research and formulation of special administrative regulations for low‑altitude‑data administration.
Departmental‑rule dimension: Improve administrative norms for flight‑dynamic‑data reporting and low‑altitude‑geospatial‑data processing.
Industrial‑standard dimension: Accelerate formulation of standards for low‑altitude‑data‑collection formats, interfaces, classification‑and‑grading, right‑confirmation‑and‑registration technical specifications and security‑protection standards to fill standard gaps.
Local‑detailed‑rule dimension: Low‑altitude pilot cities formulate local implementation rules for low‑altitude‑data administration adapting to local industrial conditions and conduct local pilot explorations.
8.2 Multi‑stakeholder Collaborative‑governance Layer
Build a collaborative pattern involving competent regulatory authorities, local low‑altitude‑data platforms, industrial‑market entities, third‑party professional institutions and industrial associations.
Competent regulatory authorities: Cross‑departmental collaborative supervision among civil‑aviation, data‑administration, public‑security, natural‑resources and emergency‑management authorities to balance security and industrial development.
Local integrated low‑altitude platforms: Undertake local‑scope data aggregation, registration acceptance, public‑data opening and supervision‑monitoring functions.
Market entities: Aircraft‑manufacturing enterprises, flight‑operation service providers, low‑altitude‑infrastructure platforms and data‑service providers fulfill primary‑subject liabilities.
Third‑party institutions: Compliance‑authentication, security‑assessment and right‑confirmation‑and‑registration‑service agencies deliver professional services.
Industrial associations: Promote industry self‑regulation, release industrial compliance guidelines and organize industrial training.
8.3 Technical‑platform‑support Layer
Three categories of platforms constitute the technical foundation. First, national‑and‑local integrated low‑altitude‑supervision‑and‑service platforms realizing flight‑reporting, flight‑dynamic‑data reception, public‑data opening and evidentiary storage for right‑confirmation‑and‑registration. Second, enterprise‑internal data‑governance platforms accomplishing inventory, classification‑and‑grading and permission‑control for corporate proprietary low‑altitude‑data assets. Third, credible data‑circulation‑and‑transaction platforms enabling compliant trading of low‑altitude‑data products and privacy‑computing‑based collaboration.
8.4 Full‑Life‑Cycle Business‑compliance Layer
Embed compliance into every link: right‑confirmation, collection, storage, processing, circulation, external provision and destruction.
Right‑confirmation link: Verify data‑source legitimacy and conduct right‑confirmation‑and‑registration.
Collection link: Pre‑mission risk assessment, implement minimization‑and‑necessity principles and standardize collection behaviors.
Storage‑and‑processing link: Classified storage, log retention and desensitization‑and‑de‑identification.
Circulation‑and‑external‑provision link: Review external‑output purposes, constrain rights‑and‑obligations via contracts, execute security assessments for important data.
Destruction link: Secure deletion of discarded datasets to prevent residual‑data leakage.
Compliance for special scenarios shall also be addressed: establish simplified‑compliance‑exemption mechanisms for emergency‑rescue and other special scenarios, clarify data‑usage boundaries for emergencies to strike balance between emergency‑response efficiency and security control.
8.5 Supervision, Sanction and Incentive Mechanisms
Regulatory authorities conduct regular inspections and law‑enforcement penalties targeting illegal collection, unauthorized transactions, data leakage and illegal cross‑border data transfer. Introduce positive industrial incentives: grant pilot‑policy support to demonstration enterprises with sound data‑governance compliance. Set up complaint‑and‑reporting channels for social supervision over irregular low‑altitude‑data‑processing behaviors.
9. Industrial‑implementation Pathways and Countermeasure Suggestions
9.1 National Level: Accelerate Improvement of Top‑level Institutions and Standards
Advance research on special institutions for low‑altitude‑economy data elements and deliver legal guidelines clarifying property‑right division under low‑altitude scenarios. Organize industrial stakeholders to compile national standards covering low‑altitude‑data‑collection interfaces, classification‑and‑grading and right‑confirmation‑and‑registration. Build a national unified master‑platform for low‑altitude‑data right‑confirmation‑and‑registration and connect interfaces of local pilot platforms. Improve identification guidelines for important low‑altitude‑data to guide enterprises in identifying and protecting important data.
9.2 Local‑government Level: Promote Governance Implementation via Low‑Altitude Pilots
Low‑altitude‑reform pilot cities shall formulate local implementation rules for low‑altitude‑data administration and launch right‑confirmation‑and‑registration pilots based on local integrated low‑altitude platforms. Compile local inventories for public‑low‑altitude‑data opening. Build local low‑altitude‑data‑security‑monitoring capacities. Organize compliance training for enterprises and foster local third‑party‑service industries for low‑altitude data.
9.3 Industrial‑enterprise Level: Establish Internal Low‑Altitude‑Data‑element‑Governance Systems
All types of low‑altitude‑market entities shall complete internal inventory of low‑altitude‑data assets and sort out proprietary datasets. Formulate internal data‑classification‑and‑grading inventories. Optimize pre‑flight‑mission data‑risk‑assessment workflows. Implement full‑link compliance for data collection, storage and external output. Participate actively in right‑confirmation‑and‑registration pilots. Prioritize adopting “available‑without‑visible” collaboration modes such as interface services and privacy‑computing, and exercise prudence in circulating raw aerial‑imaging footage. Conduct regular security self‑inspections and staff training.
9.4 Industrial‑ecosystem Level: Foster Service Ecosystem for Low‑Altitude‑Data Elements
Promote data exchanges to upgrade service capacities for low‑altitude‑data transactions. Develop specialized service providers for low‑altitude‑data compliance and security assessment. Industrial associations shall release industrial self‑regulation conventions and practical enterprise guidelines. Encourage industry‑university‑research collaboration on technical research of low‑altitude‑data elements and scale up application of privacy‑computing and data‑watermark technologies in low‑altitude scenarios.
10. Research Conclusions
Low‑altitude‑economy data elements constitute indispensable key production factors for high‑quality low‑altitude‑industry development. Nevertheless, three‑dimensional spatial attributes and intertwined multi‑interest characteristics determine that governance models for conventional internet‑data elements cannot be directly copied. The core objective of low‑altitude‑data‑element governance is to clarify ownership boundaries, standardize collection behaviors, enable compliant circulation pathways and unlock industrial value under the bottom‑line requirements of safeguarding national security, public security and personal‑information protection.
The governance framework constructed in this report commences with scenario‑oriented classified right‑confirmation, standardizes full‑link collection behaviors, designs multi‑level circulation mechanisms, deploys dynamically‑adapted data‑security protection, and establishes a five‑tier collaborative compliance‑governance system. At present, institutional construction for low‑altitude‑data elements remains in exploratory stages. Detailed rules for right‑confirmation‑and‑registration, circulation‑transaction and security‑protection will keep iterating alongside industrial practices. Joint efforts from government regulatory bodies, industrial enterprises and third‑party institutions are required to realize low‑altitude‑data elements that are well‑governed, smoothly‑circulated and effectively‑utilized, serving the development of China’s new‑quality productive forces within the low‑altitude economy.
Data Sources
1. National laws, regulations and policy documents: Data Security Law of the People’s Republic of China, Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, Cybersecurity Law of the People’s Republic of China, Interim Regulations on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight Administration, Regulations on Cyber‑data‑Security‑Administration, civil‑aviation‑authority industrial rules, local low‑altitude‑economy and low‑altitude‑data‑administration policy documents.
2. Public industrial‑research materials: Low‑altitude‑economy research reports released by China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, legal‑research documents from law firms specialized in low‑altitude economy, public platform‑construction materials of low‑altitude pilot cities, publicly‑published academic papers in industrial journals.
3. Public industrial statistics: Public investigation reports on data‑elements released by National Data Administration, publicly‑disclosed industrial statistics from industrial associations, public industrial‑disclosure information of local low‑altitude‑economy industries.
4. Industrial‑case materials: Public practical cases of low‑altitude pilots in Hefei, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Guiyang, public enterprise‑technical‑schemes and industrial white‑papers.
5. Collated materials from expert interviews: Public expert viewpoints and open industrial‑seminar outcomes covering low‑altitude industry and data compliance.
Disclaimer
This report is an academic‑research output for industrial purposes. All viewpoints and analytical conclusions represent only research judgments of the compiling institutions, and shall not be construed as legal opinions, investment advice or operational guidance for businesses. Cited data and materials are sourced from publicly‑accessible channels. Compiling institutions assume no guarantee for the authenticity and completeness of externally‑quoted original materials.
Given the rapid development of the low‑altitude economy, partial institutions and technical practices remain in pilot‑exploration phases. Partial conclusions of this report may evolve along with policy updates and industrial‑practice iterations. Any institution or individual making business or legal decisions based on this report shall conduct independent judgment in light of up‑to‑date national laws, regulatory policies and actual conditions, and bear corresponding decision‑making risks.
Tampering and abridged republication of this report without written permission from compiling institutions are prohibited. Citation or reproduction of report contents shall fully indicate the report title and all compiling research institutions.
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