The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s new drone registry will be a public, searchable database.
On Monday the FAA will launch the a registry (the Aviation Registration System) in order to gather information about drones that fall into certain weight limitations and their operators.
Until just recently, the details of the planned registry have been vague, but the main issue of confusion this week has been caused by two contradictory statements from the Department of Transport (DOT) and the FAA.
The FAA says only agency representatives will be able to access the personal information, but the DOT says it will actually be available to the general public.
John Goglia from Forbes spoke with the FAA and received this statement:
Until the drone registry system is modified, the FAA will not release names and address [sic]. When the drone registry system is modified to permit public searches of registration numbers, names and addresses will be revealed through those searches.
So it currently appear that anyone who owns a drone and enters their details in the register, will be searchable at some point when the feature is enabled.
SOURCE: FAA.
Larry Banks is a keen follower of technology and finance. He has worked for a variety of online publications, writing about a diverse range of topics including mobile networks, patents, and Internet video delivery technologies.