eli5. Why do people blur out their license plates? Is there any real harm in posting that info?
In: Technology
Your license plate is attached to your registration and insurance, which is attached to your name, address, and other info. And there are ways online to identify people by plate numbers.
Most people don’t want random internet persons to know their personal info.
You can technically pay money to find out info on this. Donut on YouTube did a video on it. They were able to get photos from CCTV cameras the car drove through. Could help a stalked a lot.
Bigger reason is fraud. If you have a white Honda civic, you could go on Facebook Marketplace and look for other white Honda civics of your year. All it takes is one match and if you get a fake plate of what’s on that car and put in on yours, you now have a lot of stuff you case along to the other owner.
Tolls by plate? Now to the other guy. Committing a crime and they got your plate? Won’t know it was you. This actually happened to my dad. Thankfully the car hadn’t been registered to my dad in like 5 years but he had a toll sent to him.
Posting license plate numbers is a form of doxing since it is attached to identifying info. Reddit bans doxing other people and mods have to actively remove posts that dox someone else. Blurring out the plates keeps the posts in line with the rules.
In Ontario you can order a used vehicle package with only a license plate number and any drivers license number. That report can be mailed to any address. That used vehicle package will give you the current registered owners information. Great if you are shopping for a car to steal.
In the UK there is no harm at all.
A member of the public can check whether the car is taxed and insured, and can only access information that would assist them in the decision to buy the vehicle. You can check that the make, model, and colour of the vehicle matches the registration, you can see the detailed results of all recent MOTs (the annual roadworthiness test) and see all the identified defects and mileage, and you can see if there are any outstanding recalls on the vehicle. You can also pay any number of companies to get information about outstanding finance, whether it has been written off or reported stolen.
However you can’t get identifying information such as the registered keeper’s name and address.
Go ahead and post yours. Oh you won’t? Why not?
An unscrupulous family member of mine used to see people with nice rims out on the road, write down their license plate, search them up, and then go steal the rims.
Not that that’s the real danger of posting it online, per se, but people can definitely track you down with that information.
If someone has the same make, model and color as your vehicle, they can make a fake copy of your plate and then any tickets they get will come to you.
I have wondered this too since your license plate is fully visible in public. All these fraud/ scam things that could be done by a plate being posted could theoretically also be done by anyone driving on the road next to you. I think the harm would just be making the potential audience larger, not that they could do anything additional with the plate being visible in a pic than visible IRL.
Some people have access to nonpublic softwares that can bring up your info from just a plate number.
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