Why do some posters blank out license plates?
 

I see this all the time both here and on lots of other sights. People post a picture of their car and they blank out the license plate number. What is the point of this? Your license plate number is visible all the time when your car is out of the garage, nothing underhanded could be done with it that I am aware of. Not putting anyone down that does this, just curious as to why people do it.

Conversely, the ones with vanity plates consistently don't conceal their tag.

I think when it comes to the internet people are very cautious about any identity info. When posting you are opening up to the world not just driving around. I have also noticed most people don't identify their location under their avatar. Does it make sense IDK?

I've never understood it either. Paranoia maybe. I drive around, my license plate is in view. My bright orange car sits in the parking lot each and every day outside my place of business. I'm sure people have seen me pull into my garage. I don't live in a big city so if you see a Hot Wheels around, it's problem me. I suppose if I post a pic of my plate online, and you live out of state you might be able to access the information that people who live around here already know. But what are you going to do with that information.

Yeah pretty ridiculous, especially when many pictures still embed the location data with it, if you know how to look for it. (most people leave the location embedding on, they don't even know they have it on their phone)

It's a privacy thing and it is a common practice. If you look at Google street view you will see that Google blurs the plates on all the vehicles. So do many car shows when they post event pictures.

At least they are posting pictures of their cars. What concerns me is the lack of women in these pictures.

I cover my plates or blur them when posting pics. It's a privacy thing tbh, I do know if somebody really wants to find me they can (I'm not in hiding) but also do not want to make it easy to be stalked either. On my youtube channel I use a specific plate for Mexico runs for obvious reasons.

Exactly! Your exposure is much higher on the internet where potential crazies roam. Plus you may say something incriminating or offensive that pisses off someone. That paranoia is justified in my opinion.

Also, for those concerned about location data in their cell pics. You can turn off geo or location tagging in your camera app on Android. Not sure for the iPhone.

Just people being cautious...the thing that gets me is people putting stuff up all over the internet what they are doing at the moment, where they are and who they are with every minute of the day! I work in IT, people let out too much info, not good for security and their own personal safety. Hell, half of my neighbors buy a router from the store, plug it in and they are on their way, zero security at all! I tell people to have an actual IT person setup the correct way, tons of settings in router that so many people overlook that leaves them out in the wide open.

Because fear + ignorance = blurred plates.

So I had an incident once on the road where some BMW driver (it's always a BMW driver) got upset at me started tailgating me and taking pictures of the back of my car. Anyways I got kinda freaked out that the person would show up at my house when my wife and kids were there alone (along with the worthless dog), and ended up doing some research about what someone can do with your license plate. The short answer is nothing, unless they are a cop or someone with access to the DMV database. I think it's actually a fairly serious crime to look up someones information with intent to do them harm.

After all of the research, one of the things I still decided is that I will blackout my license plate when I post any pictures of my car and here's why. Maintaining the disconnect of my license plate number and any personal information about me is very important to me. Someone who just knows the plate number may not really be able to do anything with it, but they could associate it with my username. Then with my username, who knows maybe I accidentally posted some other personal information when buying something on the forum or they could contact someone I bought or sold something from/to. I agree, it's mildly paranoid, but for me it's just an extra precaution that really isn't too difficult and there really are some crazy people out there.

Only if you have location information, lol.

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