In a policy required by the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, the agency has enacted Section 803 Data Privacy to allow aircraft owners to keep their personal data off FAA websites. While this is a solid starting point for pilot privacy, recent moves to take advantage of ADS-B tracking are dragging the effort several steps backwards.
Specifically, Section 803 states that, “upon request of a private aircraft owner or operator, the Administrator withholds the registration number and other similar identifiable data or information, except for physical markings required by law, of the aircraft of the owner or operator from any broad dissemination or display.” This includes the owner’s name, address, email, and phone number.
The option to request that this information be removed was opened through the Civil Aviation Registry Electronic Services (CARES) on March 28. However, the FAA is still planning to leave comments open in the Federal Register to debate whether allowing owners to hide their information would “affect the ability of stakeholders to perform necessary functions, such as maintenance, safety checks, and regulatory compliance."
Depending on these comments, the FAA is also willing to make withholding private owners’ information the default option, eliminating the need to request the change. To do so, they would have to create a procedure for owners and operators to get their data when necessary.
Pilot privacy has been a forefront concern within the community for years, though it has recently taken center stage due to concerns about ADS-B data usage. The FAA mandated ADS-B for aircraft operating in most controlled airspace on January 1, 2020, with the promise that the technology would be used for safety and efficiency - nothing more.
This pledge has been broken time and time again, with several organizations using ADS-B for petty lawsuits, regulation enforcement, and landing fees. The FAA addressed concerns with its superfluous ADS-B usage with the Privacy International Civil Aviation Organization Address (PIA) program in late 2024, but third-party companies that use flight data to collect airport fees have become all too common.
FMI: www.faa.gov
