License plate censorship.
 

I've seen this quite a bit for years now. It wasn't until looking at peoples builds on this forum, did it start to really make me question it.

When you take photos of your cars, why to you blur out the license plate number? What does one expect to hide?

Agreed. Everyone you pass on the road sees it.

I'm with you. Never made sense to me either.

Major reasons include shielding against dealership/other agency warranty claim evidence and, at the extreme, safeguard against those who would use the license number maliciously (fake plates for stolen 86, for example. Rare given the limited number of platforms out, much less stolen)

I don't know and I never cared. What are you going to do with it? Look up my address up in the DMV? I'll be waiting.

What Koa said and...
Ever piss somebody on the internet off bad enough they really wanted to find you?
Don't know about anyplace else but in Ontario it is as simple as filling out a form and paying $50 to get the info on a car's owner from a plate number.

I am not worried about it either though.

LOL, ehh here and there.. I'm subbed to so many forums between different cars I've over the years, audio/speakers, R/C, technology, that it doesn't even bother me anymore. If someone wanted to find me and smash my windows in, it would have been a long time ago.


:cheers:

Theft. You listed all your mods on the forum. I know you have 10k+ in engine mods, on an otherwise stock looking car. All those parts fit on my car. All I need is a license plate and I can look it up where you live. Its not hard to drag a car onto a flat bed.

Its much different now with smart keys and whatnot. Older cars like civics/integras/240sx were much easier to steal. When I had those cars, I got asked plenty of times by sketchy people... "what city are you from?" followed by,, "oh yeah? I live near there too!, what cross streets?" yeah right dude....

Makes yourself a higher chance of being a potential target for thieves. All they have to do is go into your user statistics and view posts you've made to find out what local area you're in or if you attend any meets. After that all they have to do is show up and find your car and figure out where you live or put the car. Next day you wake up and your car is gone and your parts are on craigslist. Especially people who make those "build logs" or "car journals". This used to happen a lot to the Honda Tech guys.

Because you're home 24/7 right? This isn't a pissing contest. If somebody wants your car badly enough they're going to steal it. I mean why expose yourself anymore than you should? I've seen some crazy stories on car forums regarding how people stole their car.

exactly this. I still do it out of habit... only takes a second to do anyway.

edit: a good case in point was when someone tried to steal my brother's 2000 stock Civic SI. luckily, a cop happened to be right across the street.

It's unfortunately a sign of our times. You have to be careful with ALL your personal information or some loser will find a way to scam you.

When you have a memorable or iconic plate, it further reduces the need to conceal it. Flaunt it!

http://thoughtsfromparis.com/wp-cont...ads/assman.jpg

Mostly PARANOIA lol...I used to do it to when I put money into my Hondas because i've had 3 Hondas stolen in San Diego. They were JDM style Yoooo..K series hatchbacks are fun miss those days

Now I don't even bother because of my vanity plate and garage helps to

In Norway it's a 1NOK = 0.14USD text message, you get name and county (+ other useful info about the vehicle) in seconds. Which is usually enough to look up phone and full address using a free app.
I actually did this once. Not from a photo, but a guy in a Volvo who made me seriously lose my cool out on the road. I calmed down quickly, but after discovering that his house was only minutes away.
I'm not concerned about posting photos of my license plate. Road rage, however, has become very convenient.

Potentially even more costly is disclosing your real name on track day or autocross attendance lists.

It doesn't matter to some underwriters, like Progressive, if you wreck or not. Just having your car on a closed course entry list whether untimed driver education or anything else may be enough to lose coverage. That's why many participants list a pseudonym and remove plates before entering the track facility.

I'll be building a dedicated Chump/LeMons track car and if I still have the FR-S, use it for TSD rallying.

Of course you can buy track specific day/season policies that are very expensive while those carriers are still in business. Most are having financial difficulties. They don't get many claims numbers but almost all are total losses of high-end cars.

The fancy thing for me is, because one or more of my family members has a certain career, all of our plates are blacked out in the DMV. Not even cops and state troopers can run my plates. They get empty fields back. I can actually run red light cams. I accidentally forgot to pay a toll online once and was waiting for the ticket in the mail.... Remembered they can't mail me tickets because they can't find my address lol. It's really handy.

Downside is once or twice I've had a cop pull me over and just kinda talk to me for a minute, presumably to figure out what's up with me.

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I take off my plates when I get to the paddock. But I'm sure if someone looked hard enough they could connect my car to my forum name to my real name. But I won't make it a walk in the park :D

So what you are telling us is there are probably hundreds of thousands of cars driving around the States with plates that just come up blank if law enforcement checks them?
But, it is ok to post that fact on the internet?

Probably not that many - not many jobs give your family that protection. Being a judge is one of them, it's just so like no one can find you or your family even if it's like a corrupt cop or someone with DMV access. It sounds super cool but it's pretty boring haha. It's no secret, most of the cops know exactly why haha.

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:lol:okay.

I don't think being a Judge puts a black out on your information. At the very least the person running the NCIC search will get flagged for having hit a high profile return and they won't get back much more than the information the state DMV carries. About the same as running a senator or the president.

I tend to wear my tin foil hat as I drive around town all the time, too.

One of my parents is a judge and was asked to submit all our info for a blackout. The state told him it blocks name/address. I'm sure it's not purged, but I do know from experience I can't get mailed any tickets since I've waited for those mail toll things like 8 distinct times in several states haha. I wanted to pay the toll too, I'm a good citizen who doesn't carry change :(

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Do you want to see mine..??http://i1011.photobucket.com/albums/...s/marteau1.gif


Everyone one on facebook can connect a image of a car to another one posted on a car forum so it's not like people can't find your name and where you live nowadays.


http://i1011.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7061fecf.jpg

Don't turn around, I'm already in your home! Lol

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Fuck Facebook and no. Just like @ZionsWrath said, at least make someone work for it.

Don't care if anyone knows where I live.


I own a big gun. http://i1011.photobucket.com/albums/...s/mdr-ordi.gif

Because they choose too

To protect my privacy. Any shithead can find out where you live through your license plate if they really wanted to.

Cops.

What, all of the 1.35 billion active users, or should we narrow it down a bit by gender and age?
I appreciate the sentiment, though.

The internet cops? I'm more worried about the unmarked highway patrols and those sneaky bastards hiding in the shrubbery with laser pistols.

Tbh if I put a sizeable sum of money into upgrades (let's say over $5,000) I might blur out my plates. That said, I can walk through any multi-level parking garage and find plenty of good prospects, but I would have little idea of what was under the hood.

Thanks for all the feedback guys it's much appreciated. I agree makes sense if you have lots of money into your vehicle. I've just seen a lot of people post bone stock images on Facebook with something like a 87 toyota corolla with fuzzed out plates.

I have a very unique name. I am the only one in the world and therefore, do not have the convenience of anonymity. Just a particularly sore spot for me.

Don't even bother, all your base are belong to us

So do I! I am the only one in the world with my name. My last name is shared with a handful of people, most of them are my relatives.
I never thought of it as an inconvenience, on the contrary in fact. For instance, there will never be a notorious and infamous criminal walking around with my name.
Well, unless I decide to become one of course... But that's rather unlikely, I'm timid.
:scared0016:

Its a good thing I have insurance and receipts of all my mods so if my car is stolen I will get it replaced soon enough. But I can just walk down the street and see dozens of cars AT LEAST twice the price of my little 86.

Being overly paranoid is a terrible way to live. Then again my custom plates, gated garage at home and security cameras at work/home parking does add some nice peace of mind.

I've had my first car in San Diego stolen before and yeah it SUUUUUUUUCKed but it wasn't the end of the world. Insurance did what I pay them for and got the full value of my car back and ended up getting a nicer vehicle.



If someone really is like, fuck you I'm stealing your car they can do it. Blurring out your licenese plate wont stop them. Most photos now have TONS of geotagged info you dont even realize. Anyone can find out the exact location you took that picture unless you go through all the steps to strip out that data (which I know almost no one does)

Enhance.