The Ministry of Civil Aviation issued a public notice on Monday, 13 January, requiring drone operators to register their unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) by 31 January.

The voluntary registration requires the submission of sensitive personal data including Aadhaar/passport, bank statements, PAN details. However, this process, meant to be carried out online by the DGCA appears to redirect users to a page owned by a private IT company and not by the Civil Aviation Ministry.

What does this mean? Sensitive information pertaining to drone operators and owners is being collected not by the government but by a private entity whose identity or information has not been disclosed. The Director General of the DGCA has confirmed that it is a private entity which runs the page.

The collection of Aadhaar data without an underlying legal framework appears to be in contravention of the Supreme Court order of September 2018 which bars such access by private companies without a specific law.