I'm sure every spotter or really anyone who takes pictures of cars has gotten this kind of response at least once in their career. But my question is this: why are people so skeptical of license plate numbers?

First of all, I understand that it can contain personal information, however millions of people see your license plate number every day and yet you wake up every morning, your wife is fine, your kids are fine, you haven't had your house robbed, etc.

Second of all, if you do research, you'll quickly find out that you really cannot do anything with a license plate number except look up on CarFAX what kind of car it's registered to. You used to be able to find out everything from somebody's name to their home address just using a license plate number, however Bill Clinton signed a law in 1994 after Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered by a deranged fan who looked through her DMV records in 1989. This law is called the Driver's Privacy Protection Act. The only information that can be obtained from that is the information covered under the Freedom of Information Act such as criminal offenses, traffic citations, and the name of the person who owns the car. As a matter of fact, I could look up all that information just from someone giving me their real name. Nothing such as home addresses, phone numbers or anything like that can be searched for recreational purposes under the DPPA.

So why do I have such a problem with blanking plates? It's not because I want to expose somebody for cheating on their wife with their secretary (that's literally the excuse I got when I got thrown out of The Inn at Pound Ridge), but you're taking away the car's identity. You're taking away the one thing that separates that car from the rest of the cars on the road as no two plates are exactly the same. Especially with vanity plates, with that, you are taking away the personality aspect of the car and what kind of person owns the car.

I also feel that it's just completely unnecessary. Like if somebody asks me to blank a plate I'll just be like "fine whatever", but it's a pain in the ass to try to blank it and still make it look good.

So, what are your thoughts on this?

I have not had many encounters like the ones mentioned previously, but I also do not understand the perceived fear of showing a license plate online. I do not blank plates, but I try to take pictures at angles that do not give the public an impression a license plate is being captured intentionally. People love to assume the worst.

I can actually kind of see that one though lol. If you photograph them at a certain spot on a certain day and post it, there's always a chance someone could see it and find out a lie. Though I can also see the privacy aspect. Most people who see the cars don't care. Though if someone takes a picture and posts it online, it opens it up to millions more people to have the opportunity to look up information from the plate and do bad things with it like maybe target them for a robbery since they have a nice car or stalk them since they have a nice car (I know there are way too many creepy/desperate people in the car community who would do this).

I always blanks plates, I don't use Vinwiki or ECR so I don't really see a reason not to.

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