Just How Many Drone Licenses Has the FAA Really Issued?Jennifer Lynch This new number points out again how difficult it is to answer the most common questions EFF gets from reporters about drones just how many agencies have applied for drone licenses? How many licenses has the FAA issued since it started issuing licenses (which was earlier than 2007)? And how much has domestic drone use increased over the years? Unfortunately, the FAA has made it impossible to answer these questions. Weve been tracking drone flights in the United States for several years now through our two Freedom of Information Act lawsuits against the Federal Aviation Administration, and we currently havemore information on domestic drone flights than anyone other than the FAA. But thanks to discrepancies among various drone numbers the FAA has releasedto EFF, to the Government Accountability Office and to members of Congressits anyones guess exactly how much drone authorizations have increased over the years. Heres a summary of the various numbers the FAA has released. See if you can make sense of them. July 2010: July 2012: September 2012: September 2012: January 2013: February 2013: There are other discrepancies. Of the 228 entities on the list released to Representatives Markey and Barton in September 2012, at least 28 are not on either of the lists the FAA provided to EFF, despite the fact that the FAA has assured EFFas part of our litigationthat EFFs lists include all public entities that have applied for drone licenses. These missing entities include the following: And a number of State National Guard offices: And, by the FAAs own admission, the list provided to Markey and Barton does not include classified drone applications. The only way we can have an open and full debate about domestic drone flights is if we have accurate, complete, up-to-date and reliable data on how many entities are licensed to fly drones, who those entities are, and how many licenses the FAA has issued for each year its issued licenses. EFF shouldnt have to keep suing the FAA to get this information. To keep up to date with the latest in privacy issues and activism, please visit the Electronic Frontier Foundation. linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 