Registration and Background Checks

The Transportation Department wants to require recreational users to register their drones, which would dramatically increase the number of drones registered with the government, compared with the FAA’s proposed rules. While the FAA has issued nearly 1,900 approvals to companies for commercial-drone flights in the U.S., industry officials estimate that there are hundreds of thousands of recreational drones in the country. One FAA official said last month that some officials expect more than 1 million drones to be sold around Christmas this year. WSJ

And how much is this going to cost?  Not just to drone owner/operators but to the taxpayer as well?  I've seen registration fee estimates ranging from free to $5 but nothing on how much it's going to cost the government to keep track of all these drones (anyone looking for a database manager position? Information Security?).  Seriously, it's going to be a database filled with names, addresses and who knows what other data, what the government refers to as personally identifiable information (PII), all of which require expensive security protections mandated by federal law.

Good idea? Bad idea? Or would just banning recreational drone use within X feet of an airport, building, highway, etc. and leaving it to local law enforcement be a better option?