I recently stumbled onto something called BikeGuard - https://www.myassettag.com/bike/.
From their website:
Every 7 seconds, a bicycle is stolen in the U.S.
Thousands of bicycles are recovered by law enforcement each year, but due to a lack of identification, few are returned.
BikeGuard: The Free Bike Registry is a service hosted by MyAssetTag, and our parent company, SmartSign, to identify your bike in case of loss or theft. We catalog bicycles and their owners through asset tags stamped with your individual ID number. And we offer asset tags and registration to bike owners across North America for free.
Why we do it: The cyclists here at our Brooklyn office know what it’s like to lose a bike, and wonder what happened to it as it languishes in the storeroom of a police station because it lacks proper identification. We’re here to help.
It’s an interesting scheme and beyond the asset tags they send out, I doubt it incurs much cost to run for MyAssetTag, given the business that it’s in (online retailer of asset tags). I’ve registered my bike and I’ll see if the labels arrive here in Canada (they do say that the labels are free across North America). They highlight the security of their data systems and personal information is never public or shared. I think it’s a great idea and I thank them for offering it to all cyclists.
If you use this or know of a similar registry, we’d love to hear about it.