B4UFLY is the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) mobile service , which allows users who have downloaded an app to their mobile device, to determine whether or not it is safe to fly a drone within a geographic area. The service uses the geo-location of a user’s mobile device, when turned on, to populate a map and display a status indicator to advise the user whether their area is safe for drone operation. If geo-location is not turned on, users will have to search a map of the entire continental United States for their location. The also allows users to plan their upcoming drone flights from GPS coordinates to determine whether that area is safe to fly or if an authorization is required. If an authorization is required, B4UFLY provides a link to an UAS Service Supplier (USS) to apply for authorization.

By using the B4UFLY service, the user agrees to accept the terms of this Privacy Policy. The B4UFLY application collects, uses, maintains, and disseminate users’ personally identifiable information (PII) in order to access and use the application as described. In order to register to download the B4UFLY application and other mobile applications from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, you may be required to provide your PII (e.g. an email address). Any PII collected, used, maintained and disseminated to the Apple Store or Google Play Store is maintained by those companies, and is outside the control of the FAA or Aloft. Your activity on App Store and Google Play Store is governed by their privacy policies. You should review their privacy policies and ensure you understand how your information may be shared and used.

The user navigates directly to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and downloads the application(s) directly to their mobile device for free. Neither the Apple App Store nor Google Play Store provides any information to the FAA showing that an identifiable user has downloaded the application.
When allowed by the user, the service uses the geo-location of a user’s mobile device. The geo-location services that populate the map occurs in the following manner: there is a backend database that is maintained on the vendor’s cloud via Amazon Web Services, which receives the data call from the user’s mobile device and returns back a populated map. Geo-location data of mobile devices are not transmitted back to the FAA, and after the data call is complete, are deleted and not stored in the backend database.

Various technologies (e.g. cookies) are used to help improve the application such as unique device identifiers, IP addresses, hardware models, operating system and version, etc. We monitor aggregated, anonymous, and non-identifiable data to monitor the performance and functionality of the application. The service does not access user’s camera or any other information maintained on the user’s mobile device.

B4UFLY provides Users with ‘Contact FAA’ web links, which allows them to voluntarily provide feedback. ‘Contact FAA’ links to the FAA.gov feedback web-form, where Users may submit policy related questions to the FAA. Users may provide an email address so that they may be contacted in response to the feedback they provided. If Users decide to not provide an email address, they may submit feedback anonymously through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store review section. The FAA.gov feedback web-form, generates an email on the internal FAA mail system that is sent to uashelp@faa.gov. The Office of Aviation Safety’s (AVS), Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Office (AUS) will respond to the User using the provided email. The FAA destroys these email records in accordance with the appropriate retention schedule.

The FAA has implemented measures to ensure that Users are aware of its privacy practices regarding B4UFLY. FAA’s B4UFLY website provides Users a general overview of B4UFLY’s capabilities. The B4UFLY Privacy Policy is available within B4UFLY under ‘Terms’ and may be accessed at anytime at www.faa.gov/uas/gettingstarted/b4ufly-privacy-policy

Changes to this Privacy Policy

The FAA will occasionally update this Privacy Policy to reflect FAA and customer feedback, or if there are changes in the information collected or the manner in which the information is to be used or maintained. The FAA encourages you to review periodically this statement to be informed of how the FAA is protecting your information.

UAS Privacy Best Practices

There is a balance between your rights as a drone user and other people’s right to privacy. Even though this balance can be difficult to precisely define, we encourage you to voluntarily follow the UAS Privacy Best Practices.