Obscuring License Plate Pics - Wondering

Just a general vehicle question. I've always wondered why people obscure license plates in pics. Look on CL and even on this forum, it's like this. If I sit at a traffic light and take pics of all the plates, they're clearly visible. If I drive through the mall and grab pics of all the Tacos plates, they're clear. I know the scammers do this when they're using one pic in many parts of the country. What's up with this?

 

We don’t want to be ID’ed prior to the Area51 raid.

 

Everytime I have asked someone about it they just say "I just did it because everyone else does". It has no purpose really, since as you said, anyone can see a person's plate out on the street.

 

I've always wondered the same thing for the exact same reasons. It probably started with someone that's legitimately hyper concerned with privacy and just caught on with other people for no apparent reason.

I'm sure there's a legit reason for *some* people to do it. Say, people that don't want their user name/posts tied to their real life (police officers, government officials, etc....).

 

Folks believe it helps to keep their online anonymity intact. Some prolly do it so any po-po that come across it online or wherever can't run their tags and get their info. If you don't think some cops do that with plates they find online you're mistaken. I understand you don't have anything to hide, I'm just saying why people blur the plates. Can't hurt anything to blur the plates, if anything can help keep your identity online more anonymous. I know people can find you and all that of they truly want. Not that I agree or disagree I'm just telling why people do it

 

I’ve had people flip the fuck out at me for taking pictures of their vehicles.

 

Not again.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/pictures-and-license-plates.612121/

 

It's like whispering to someone for no reason, they will whisper back to you just because you did it.

 

So you can't read it

 

Lol yet half the time it is people posting it on facebook marketplace where they have their place of work, where they live, who they are married to, etc.

 

*Anyone* can see my home address simply by driving by my house, too.

In the modern internet age, most people aren't willing to go that route. It's much easier to get info just from scraping the web on a laptop form mom's basement.

All that info is available on-line if you look hard enough. I just prefer to not make it easier for a would-be douchebag.

How dare you compare a 3rd gen thread to this one. Shame on you sir.

 

Ah .. right. So who wants to take your license plate and do something with it

 

Do you mean physically or electronically?

The chances of me driving past someone, or better yet that person coming by my house and trespassing to get that information are extremely small, but still totally plausible. People do still rifle through your garbage and recycling, although in my neighborhood, I've only ever seen homeless people looking for cans.

Electronically, however, the chances are much greater given the easy availability of bots that can scrape all sorts of info, all while the hacker's mom is making them a sandwich.

 

You honestly think that cops have nothing better to do with their time than randomly enter license plates and see who they belong to? Are their other hobbies randomly dialing phone numbers just to find out who answers?

 

Iow, there's very little point in doing it. Some people believe that some rando can report their car stolen, but.... no.

 

Randomly? No. But they will enter plates of suspicious vehicles. Sometimes it's just to see if the license matches the vehicle it's registered to. If not, it's a stolen plate. I certainly don't have a problem with that. That's also not what's being discussed.

As someone who blocks my license from pics (at least I try to), I've never really feared that someone would report my vehicle stolen, it's just a simple matter of not wanting additional information out there. I also certainly don't pretend that this somehow prevents people from using my personal information/data in a malicious way. And I'm certainly not going to dawn my tin foil hat and preach to others like this is somehow THE way to prevent identity theft.

It's just one of the random ways I feel is an easy and reasonable step to reduce my digital footprint.

 

your shit is hella expired, lol

 

"Prior to 1994, it was easier to get home addresses from DMV records, and this was the method by which the man who murdered Rebecca Schaeffer, an actress from the 90s television show My Sister Sam, got her home address and related information. This murder led to the creation of the Drivers' Privacy Protection Act of 1994."
There is already an abundant amount of local people who can see your license plate and therefore track you down with that information. I think most just obscure their license plates now to limit the millions more internet people who get that info.

 

I must've miscommunicated the gist of my post, if that's what you got out of it.
I don't think they randomly do it. I think they intentionally do it, not at random. You saying an off-duty cop hasn't seen something he wanted to check out online, or on a forum or something, and has never wanted to run the plates if the plates are in the pic? Cmon man, I know you're (or were) a cop and my old man was a cop for 20 years, and this isn't a dig at the cops at all.
The reason people obscure the plates in online photos is to maintain anonymity as best they can. That's all I'm saying.