Chris Ehlbeck wrote:
My Dad went to show a friend of his the FAA database and that his son is
a pilot. It didn't find me so he called me.

No, it means that the FAA is finally complying with the LAW!

A few years back the FAA came to the realization that they
were in flagrant violation of the Privacy Act in making
the airman information public. They immediately took
the database down. This was immediately followed by
a bunch of whining and crying from commercial interests
who looked to exploit the data in exact ways that the
privacy act was designed to prevent.

Congress passed an exemption to the Privacy Act that said
that the data may be made public provided pilots were
given the chance to opt out. However, for several years
the FAA chose to misimplement this as only making the
mailing address unavailable. This is CONTRARY to the
LAW. The LAW and the legislative history that led up
to it was clear. A pilot could request ALL data to be
removed from public view.

I have been fighting this battle up the FAA heirarchy
and even enlisted my US Senators. Finally, I think
someone realized that it is a bad idea in the name of
national security and the ever growing problems with
identity theft to not implement it the right way.
Since they only really have one field for "releasability"
it looks like that has gone from just being the "no
address given out" to the "no records given out.

I am no longer listed. The public has no business
knowing what ratings I have, when my medical expires,
and the nature of any restrictions to my medical
certificate (this I found particularly annoying for
the several years that I was operating under a special
issuance).