Drivers with Vanity plates don't seem to worry, so why do you?

[ecidiego]

21 year IT veteran ( professionally, into tech much longer ) here.... I have an email address and phone number. No Social Media Crew checking in. It's awesome to have no part of that crap.

I also buy and listen to CDs, and only watch movies on UHD ( 4k Blu-ray ) discs. Luddite, right? Nope!

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[Challenger85]

You know, I thought about not even having my first name on here when I set up the profile. But then I thought...What the heck...I drive a bright yellow-orange Gladiator. There's no hiding.

Lol I like it. I just saw it and was like I can use this in a joke.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

You know, I thought about not even having my first name on here when I set up the profile. But then I thought...What the heck...I drive a bright yellow-orange Gladiator. There's no hiding.

That's funny - and I've always liked your screen name. Fitting, and cool at the same time.

Sort of like when I drive one of my cars - uh, no one else in the whole midwest has anything like 'em, can't use them as get-away cars - I'd be recognized in a flash.
Even my JT - there's few hydro blue JTs in our area.

In our area, drive an older Honda with a fart can if you want to blend in and remain hidden.

 

[Trickster]

I'm going to show millennial-ness, but I haven't been on Facebook for more than a minute or two since I was in college. This site, and other car related sites for my other vehicles are pretty much the only social media I do.

What is this Facebook you people are talking about?
A book with faces of people?
What is tweeting? I know birds do it.
Instagram, is that some sort of telegram?
Social media?
A party for news people?
This is it for me, vehicle forums, that’s it.

 

[Wheelin98TJ]

Post your plates

 

[ShadowsPapa]

 

[LostWoods]

Discussed at length about a year ago. I worked IT for years (IT security) and my wife had access to certain legal information. I've friends still in the business (IHP, etc.)
This hide your plate business has no basis in fact. It's something that gets spread on the web and took on a life of its own.

Google street view among other systems show your plates all over the place.
What can anyone do with a plate number anyway? Nothing, not a thing.
I can video plates while driving through the Walmart parking lot - but there's nothing I can do with that info.

Anyway, there's a couple of other places here that was touched on and there's still those who believe they really are at risk somehow by letting their plate be seen.

It definitely has some basis. It's still trivial to pull a vehicle record from the DMV and at one point, that data pull included address information of every registered owner. People blurred plates because if you had something special (as you would typically show off online), it was one less way to lead someone to your vehicle.

And I dunno where you are but here in AZ, Google blurs license plates in street view.

 

[Cape taco12]

Aside from someone to use a plate on a forum to get your address to stalk you or steal parts there are other things to consider.

I ran my old plate “ plate no. Mass Plate” in google and Tacomaworld threads popped up where I had taken pictures of my truck and they showed up in google images. Some of the posts were as far back as 2011. Nothing from older or smaller forums. But it’s weird that the internet is automatically picking out the plate no. from off-roading pics and making it searchable by plate…

I tested it with a couple threads on this forum and it does the same googled (##### license plate) and found other pics. So if you leave your plate in photos, someone on the highway admiring your jeep can google your plate get your username and DM you asking what lift you have.

Only works with some plates.

 

[redrider]

Two days ago I was the first/lead vehicle at the intersection and a "homeless" person was dunning for money. Being me, I ignored him. He walked back a couple of cars and I kept eyes on him. When the light went green, we moved off but he whips out a cell phone and leans over to photo the rear of the car behind me. Something fishy or just a humerous slogan back there? Is this a thing?

 

[Trickster]

Two days ago I was the first/lead vehicle at the intersection and a "homeless" person was dunning for money. Being me, I ignored him. He walked back a couple of cars and I kept eyes on him. When the light went green, we moved off but he whips out a cell phone and leans over to photo the rear of the car behind me. Something fishy or just a humerous slogan back there? Is this a thing?

Actually a undercover cop that smelled something being smoked in that car.

 

[Labswine]

Here's my plate...had a few PA drivers tell me they're jealous because they tried to get it only to find it was already taken...I GOT IT

 

[redrider]

Doubtful. The Blue Haired Geezette was alone, no tint and wearing a mask. Alone. Windows up.

 

[Victoryrider78]

Here's my plate...had a few PA drivers tell me they're jealous because they tried to get it only to find it was already taken...I GOT IT

AHH!! I've been thinking of a good vanity plate... here it is... and there it went. Kudos! - Back to the old drawing board.

 

[The Bean]

This was taken at my local grocery store last Sunday. I didn’t get a chance to find out what bumper they had, sadly.

 

[ChadM]

i mostly do it as a concept of least privilege style access to info. If you don't need access to some piece of info I am not going to offer it up.

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