Bolen: Block Aircraft Registration Requests Preserve
Privacy, Competative Advantage
NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen issued a statement Firday
regarding the FAA's publication in the Federal Register of a call
for comment in response to the Agency's plan to severely limit
participation in the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR)
program.
The BARR program is administered by NBAA for the FAA. Currently,
it allows operators with privacy and/or security concerns for their
operations resulting from the availability of ASDI data to request
that the data be blocked from public dissemination. This is
accomplished by operators submitting a BARR to NBAA. Operators
submitting a BARR are not currently required to furnish any reason
or justification for the request. All such requests are routinely
honored. If a BARR is not in effect, the Aircraft Situation
Display, which is a graphic depiction in real time of the location,
altitude, airspeed, destination, estimated time of arrival and tail
number or designated identifier of air carrier and general aviation
aircraft operating on IFR flight plans within U.S. airspace,
facilitates the tracking by individuals of the minute-by-minute
progress of their, or other, aircraft in real time. The FAA now
makes that data available to subscribers through several
vendors.
The NBAA says that if the proposal is implemented, only requests
fully justified by a “Valid Security Concern” will be
honored. All other requests for blocking will be denied and both
real-time tracking information and after-the-fact flight
information henceforth will be available to the public.
"The NBAA opposes the FAA's proposed limitations on the BARR
program because we believe they represent an unwarranted invasion
of the privacy of aircraft owners and operators, a threat to the
competitiveness of U.S. companies and a potential security risk to
persons on board," said Bolen.
"The government's proposal ignores the legitimate need for the
BARR program, and runs directly counter to long-established
assumptions about government's role in the protection of privacy,"
the statement continued. "When the sanctity of citizens'
private conduct is threatened by the use of information technology,
government's job is to protect the individual, not facilitate the
intrusion - that's why the public isn't given access to E-Zpass
records detailing where people are driving, or to credit card
transactions revealing what consumers are buying."
Bolen said an additional concern is that the proposal creates an
unnecessary competitive vulnerability for American businesses,
which are trying to operate in a highly competitive world - a world
in which the revelation of a company's aircraft movements can be
tantamount to the forfeiture of that company's competitive
edge.
"Here's the bottom line," Bolen said. "NBAA sees no reason why
our government should want to provide unknown parties - especially
those engaged in corporate espionage, or simply those who may wish
to do harm to others - with the tools to electronically stalk U.S.
citizens or companies on general aviation airplanes. We will
vigorously oppose this plan, and we expect that individuals and
businesses will raise a chorus of strong, unified opposition to it
as well."