AOPA urges FAA to protect aircraft owner data
Registry data used increasingly to track individual owners
AOPA, along with several other prominent general aviation organizations, sent a letter to the FAA, urging the agency to limit the disclosure of the personal information of aircraft owners.
The letter, sent on July 31, was also signed by the Experimental Aircraft Association, the National Business Aviation Association, and Vertical Aviation International.
“The statute represents a deliberate policy decision to limit public dissemination of specified aircraft registration information while preserving the FAA's ability to provide access where legitimate governmental and operational needs exist,” the letter reads.
The organizations also say that their “members have continued to express legitimate concerns regarding the FAA’s aircraft registry enabling widespread dissemination of aircraft registration and personal information through data provided by live flight tracking technologies,” and that the FAA’s Aircraft Registry was established by Congress to “promote aviation safety, establish ownership, record security interests, and support the orderly regulation of the national airspace.
“The registry was not created to serve as a database for other uses,” the organizations wrote. “While the FAA is required to maintain ownership records, nothing in the governing statute authorizes the agency to facilitate activities by making aircraft owners' personal information readily available for any conceivable use.”
They also say the disclosure of aircraft owners’ names, addresses, and other personal information “raises significant concerns” under the Privacy Act of 1974, which says that information collected by the federal government should only be used for purposes compatible with those for which it was collected.
“This is a matter of privacy and security, and both should be protected,” said AOPA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Advocacy Jim Coon. “Having consent to release personal information is one thing, but unfettered access for almost any purpose, including airport fee collection, just crosses the line.”
The letter concludes asking that the FAA “interpret its existing statutory authority narrowly, follow the Congressional intent of section 803, and disclose only the reasonably necessary information to accomplish the purposes for which the aircraft registry was established.”
