In a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) regarding the FAA’s recent Registration and Marking Requirements for Small Unmanned Aircraft Interim Rulemaking (“Interim Final Rule”), the Retail Industry Leaders Association (“RILA”) urged the FAA to “stay the course” and maintain prior-to-operation registration going forward. Among arguments RILA made in favor of prior-to-operation registration over point-of-sale registration, RILA discussed consumer data privacy issues and how they would be best addressed by prior-to-operation registration.
The Interim Final Rule, effective as of December 21, 2015, provides what the FAA calls “an alternative, streamlined and simple, web-based aircraft registration process for the registration of small unmanned aircraft.” In the Interim Final Rule, the FAA opted for prior-to-operation registration rather than point-of-sale registration. Point-of-sale registration was suggested as an option that would better ensure compliance with registration requirements, particularly for ready-to-fly unmanned aircraft. In electing for prior-to-operation registration, the FAA noted that point-of-sale registration would not be feasible to implement at that time, while clarifying that it was not foreclosing the opportunity for the development at some point down the road of a point-of-sale registration system that would relieve the burdens that had been identified by commenters. The FAA noted that it was considering how to address those burdens and encouraged innovation in point-of-sale registration systems.
Arguing for the continued use of prior-to-operation registration, RILA presented in its letter several concerns focusing on data privacy. One concern was that point-of-sale registration would require customers to reveal personally identifiable information while standing in checkout lines at retail stores—a relatively public forum compared to prior-to-operation registration that could be completed in a more private space. In addition, RILA argued that point-of-sale registration would cause retailers to be unnecessary middlemen in the registration process and pose significant data privacy and security questions. According to RILA, mandating that retailers assume the burden of storing and securing personally identifiable information would raise questions about appropriate privacy security standards, secure transfer of data to the FAA, retention times, and processes for purging registration information.
Further emphasizing the importance of consumer data privacy, RILA also offered the following suggestions regarding the registration process: make information available only to government employees engaged in enforcement activities; sufficiently secure information to prevent unauthorized access; clearly define privacy protections and provide relevant legal disclosures regarding the limited use of registration information; and continually tailor the registration process to only require the specific data necessary for enforcement purposes.
Reporter, Stephen R. Shin, New York, +1 212 556 2198, sshin@kslaw.com.
