Why do people on this forum try to hide their licence plates in pictures?

Just curious why people on this site and on car sales sites are scratching out, blurring, fuzzing, and my favourite covering up their plate with an extended thumb. Are these people wanted by law enforcement, or are they just behind in their child support? Are they afraid someone will recognize their plate number and know they secretly go to that dirty little website Tacoma World?

I drive everyday in public with my plate hanging out for all to see. Why should I worry if someone see's it on the internet?

 

T

Two articles you should read that about sum up my feelings on the matter as well as some creepy things you may not have realized:

https://lifehacker.com/learn-the-id...8.1845027891.1577757389-1029511226.1577757389

https://jalopnik.com/should-you-bother-obscuring-your-license-plates-in-phot-5941797

 

Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you!

 

If someone wants to get information from my license plate in my photos then they can go ahead and do so. I am driving on the road every day without obscuring my plate. I would think if someone wants to find my address it would be someone local, not someone on the other end of the internet, so having it visible on local roads is a bigger threat.
Just my opinion.....

 

Ever heard of the search function?

 

https://jalopnik.com/google-is-reading-your-license-plates-1839259494

 

And?
I’m a pretty private and paranoid person and this bothers me less than zero.
There’s nothing more they can figure out by my license plate being displayed online than if they see it in person, like 100’s of 1,000’s have. If they’re going to snoop, they’re going to snoop. They get no further by reading online than they can by reading it in person. Much to do about nothing.

 

Way to help Bean

 

I don't bother doing it but I guess I can understand why some might. The internet is full of an infinite number of crazies with too much time on their hands. If you have a big social media footprint or whatever, something you do or say might trigger a whackjob and having your plate number may make it that much easier for them to track you down.

I dunno, like I said I don't bother doing it but I figure that's probably the reason some people do. Or just a false sense of privacy. That's probably it lol.

 

That pretty much sums it up. If I could legally cover it on the road, I'd do that too lol

 

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!!
This day and age, we have damn near zero privacy. Your license plate on the internet ranks amazingly low on the level of your protection.

 

you can't say you're a paranoid person and that this doesn't bother you. That's like suburban parents say they are totally into hip hop, they really aren't.

The thing is, 100s and 1000s of people that see your license plate on the road don't give a damn about your vehicle. However, a crazy tacoma enthusiast that is a member on a Tacoma enthusiast website may just happen to become obsessed with your vehicle. A license plate can help them narrow down where the vehicle is located and they can try to steal it, steal parts, or hell just target the owner. Sound crazy and implausible? Yeah that's how crazy works, it doesn't make sense.

True story: went offroading and camping with some family/friends that are also tacoma owners and enthusiasts last year. Campground had an entrance fee per person. One guy is a social media guy(we will call him bob) and so he's been posting that he is going to be offroading this weekend here, there, yada yada. He gets a message from one of his followers saying hey I want to come out and meet ya because I am nearby. Bob doesn't respond. Guy shows up at the campground entrance and actually stops some of us as we are leaving to get beer/firewood because he identifies our vehicles from pictures that Bob had posted on his social media. He stops us and is asking about Bob and if he can come hang out. We at the time had no idea this dude was a little off his rocker and thought maybe it was an actual friend of Bob's so we picked him up on the way back from the shop and brought him to the campsite. It wasn't until we talked to Bob when we got there and saw his bewildered face that we realized what the hell was going on. We politely just let things be, maybe we were just being too paranoid.

Bedtime came and we offered to give a ride back to his vehicle at the entrance, crazy insisted on spending the night even though he had brought zero camping gear. We didn't have anywhere for him to sleep because everyone had only brought enough for their own people and not going to let someone we just met a 3-4 hours ago sleep in the same tiny tent. Finally convinced him otherwise and dropped him off at the entrance.

Needless to say, that was the talk of the campsite for the rest of the trip there.

Was the guy actually crazy? From having working in a mental facility with 5150s/5250s, yes (but not an MD)
Would blocking license plates have helped prevent this? Probably not but what does it hurt? I still lock my doors when I leave the house even though most breaks in defeat them with a swift donkey kick.

Hopefully this makes some sense. Already started drinking

 

I do it. I don’t know how much it helps, but people are crazy and you can never be too careful...

 

No wonder the crazy train started spiraling into more crazy by the end of this post.

Agreed though, locks were built to keep honest people honest, and dishonest people honest.

 

I posted this on the 4runner forum and got all the same responses. I don't care.

You could just as easily spot a car on the road and attempt to follow them too get an address to a home or something like that. Those threats are more likely.

 

Why do I feel like this image is going to revisit me in my sleep tonight

 

Hasn't the OP heard about...The Deep State ...

 

They only trust total strangers on the road. not forum members here.