Photos of number plates on forums

[davidpn]

I have never understood why people are so paranoid about publishing their number plates in photos on the internet. If I was in the cloning business, I would just walk out onto the street until I saw the exact car I wanted to clone and note down the plate. None of the car mags blank them so why do we do it here?

I have often thought about this but now seems a good time to ask as some poor kid in another forum has just been shot down in flames for posting a photo without blanking the plate out. So, who better to ask than the photographers amongst us...?

[monkeyhanger]

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=278295&f=109&h=0

My personal answer?

Simple good manners. A car is a car, but a number plate can get you all sorts of interesting info if you have the right contacts.

[poah]

I don't do it. I don;t see the point. putting pics online is no more a threat than driving about in your car.

[LongQ]

davidpn said:

I have never understood why people are so paranoid about publishing their number plates in photos on the internet. If I was in the cloning business, I would just walk out onto the street until I saw the exact car I wanted to clone and note down the plate. None of the car mags blank them so why do we do it here?

I have often thought about this but now seems a good time to ask as some poor kid in another forum has just been shot down in flames for posting a photo without blanking the plate out. So, who better to ask than the photographers amongst us...?

Personally I play it by ear.

If the plate is one that has been created intentionally to attract attention then it is fair game.

If it's a track day and the car is clearly not a dedicated track car then I would assume that owners would remove or cover plates if they were concerned about being identified. However it seems a bit questionable to anonymously take photos unannounced and then publish them on an internet forum. If people are at places they should not be doing things they are not expected to be doing it is not my place to highlight to the world in my role of simple bystander. I think we have more than enough official cameras doing that at the moment, though even they mostly keep the results out of public view.

If the car and plate are particularly identifiable and attractive to would be miscreants who might seek to remove the property from the owner, for example, then I think making the identification process (both car and owner and owner's family) less easy is highly desirable. For similar reasons to those that induce some of us to use less thean easily identifiable names to post to the forum in the first place.

Others may have other reasons.

[GetCarter]

[monkeyhanger]

poah said:

I don't do it. I don;t see the point. putting pics online is no more a threat than driving about in your car.

Try telling that to companies like Subaru, who have been known to send spotters to track days in order to invalidate warranties. I do not wish to assist them in their sneaky attempts to weasel out of a warranty claim for a broken radio just because the car has been on a track day.

Yes, plates should be covered, but people forget (i have) and if i have not been specifically asked to take pictures of the car then i'll blur them out.

If it's a proper race and the car has plates then i don't bother.

[Hankscorpio]

poah said:

I don't do it.

You want to check you website security then because someone on your site has...

[dinkel]

Just cover da plate . . .

[Podie]

dinkel said:

Just cover da plate . . .

..and read the reflection in the bumper...

[dinkel]

Damn, I expected that to last a bit longer . . .

[poah]

Hankscorpio said:

poah said:

I don't do it.

You want to check you website security then because someone on your site has...

that was not me lol

words will be spoken to my web monkey

[poah]

monkeyhanger said:

[quote=poah]I don't do it. I don;t see the point. putting pics online is no more a threat than driving about in your car.

Try telling that to companies like Subaru, who have been known to send spotters to track days in order to invalidate warranties. I do not wish to assist them in their sneaky attempts to weasel out of a warranty claim for a broken radio just because the car has been on a track day.

[quote]

that would be illegal.

[monkeyhanger]

poah said:

that would be illegal.

Err, no, it would not.

If the T&C's of the warranty rule out track use then they can do it, just as insurance Co's can withdraw cover.

[poah]

yes it would they cannot viod a warrenty for the radio just because it was on track. they would have to pove that being on the track caused the fault. I'm not saying being on a track would not invalidate a warrenty

[monkeyhanger]

So it boils down to being too lazy, inconsiderate or plain ignorant to edit a few number plates then.

Fair enough

[HankScorpio]

Hold on a minute, I don't do it either but it doesn't make me lazy, inconsiderate or ignorant.

I've got over 6000 track photos online, the primary people viewing are the drivers and only ONE has ever asked for the plate to be blanked. They browse, they can obviously see their own plate, they ask for original files but they never ask for their plates to be blanked and I've corresponded with hundreds of them.

Quite a few tape up or put on different plates for the day, they're obviously the ones who worry about it but the rest just don't care.

[beyond rational]

monkeyhanger said:

So it boils down to being too lazy, inconsiderate or plain ignorant to edit a few number plates then.

Fair enough

If a driver is too lazy to remove his plate if he is worried about his warrenty (insurance cough cough) then why is it reasonable to expect the photographer to do it, a change that can ruin a photograph because the unnatural block sticks out like a sore thumb? Whats to stop subaru sending a man to the track anyway? Maybe the owners should consider the type of car they buy if this is an issue, it should not be the responsiblity of others to protect them.

[agent006]

This is why:

1: Google images seach for whatever car you fancy nicking
2: find car photo with numberplate
3: call DVLA and ask for registered keeper details
4: go and nick it

Cars are more frequently being stolen to order these days, and i really object to people assisting criminals for the sake of 10 seconds work per photo.

[HankScorpio]

agent006 said:

This is why:

1: Google images seach for whatever car you fancy nicking
2: find car photo with numberplate
3: call DVLA and ask for registered keeper details
4: go and nick it

Cars are more frequently being stolen to order these days, and i really object to people assisting criminals for the sake of 10 seconds work per photo.

Rubbish.

1. Go to a PH meet
1. Stand on any high street
1. Go to a car park
1. Look out your window
2: find car with numberplate (pretty much all of them) that you fancy nicking
3: call DVLA and ask for registered keeper details, they won't tell you.
3a: Fill in their form with your name, address and that you plan to nick it, they won't tell you.
4: Go break into a convenient house, nick the keys and steal whatever car is there anyway.

Or, go straight to step 4 and save yourself a lot of aggro.

[smtk]

HankScorpio said:

1. Go to a PH meet
1. Stand on any high street
1. Go to a car park
1. Look out your window
2: find car with numberplate (pretty much all of them) that you fancy nicking
3: call DVLA and ask for registered keeper details, they won't tell you.
3a: Fill in their form with your name, address and that you plan to nick it, they won't tell you.
4: Go break into a convenient house, nick the keys and steal whatever car is there anyway.

Hank please follow your own steps and find me a Sagaris

10mins on here and I found one already. (I could probably ring the DVLA and get the guys address but I’m not willing to go that far to prove a point.)

Also to drive home my point in 20mins of web browsing I found a UK car identical that Sagaris to borrow the number plates from.

Your argument holds water for the run of the mill cars on the road, however stolen to order cars tend to be hard to find. the web is a good place to start and I can have a cup of tea while I do it.

Identity thief is all too easy now a days and the DVLA should not give out any details to private companies. They should go though the courts to get access as the DVLA isn’t fool proof

Edited by smtk on Sunday 18th June 18:02