If you're worried and asking yourself, should I cover my license plates online, the short answer is no. It is unlikely that someone will get your vehicle stolen or pull your information just by knowing the license plate number.
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Every driver and every person needs to cover their personal information as much as possible and never publish them online. However, only some information is considered extremely critical, and people might take it to the next level without clear reasons.
One of the common practices we notice every day is that many people cover their license plates whenever they have a photo of their vehicles online. Is this even needed? What do automotive experts recommend?
This article helps you answer the question, should I cover my lessons plate online? It also provides details and additional information that helps you make an informed decision about whether you should bother covering your license plate.
What information does the license plate provide you?
Before we dive into the details about whether you should cover your license plate in online photos, we must understand what information you can get from the license plate number.
Typically, your license plate number is used by the local DMV or local officers to get some information about your car. This information is most likely related to confirming the registered owner and matching the information with the current vehicle.
Have you ever been pulled over by a police officer? Do you realize that the officer already has information about you and your vehicle? That's how the license plate number plays a role. The officer will look at your license plates and plug them into his system to determine some information about you.
While this might sound like someone else can get this information, and you should cover your license plate number when you post the vehicle picture online, that's not the case. Typically, acquiring this information requires a high level of authority, and this authority will not find it anywhere except for those working with police officers or the DMV office.
In other words, it is unlikely that the general public can get the same information about your vehicle and yourself just by looking at the license plate number.
Should I cover my license plate online?
Now that you know what type of information you can get from knowing the license plate number and who can get it, the next question is to understand whether you should blur your license plate when you post a picture online.
Typically, there shouldn't be much critical information gathered from your license plate number bite us posting it online. However, some websites claim they can provide the person’s address and name by knowing the license plate number.
In that case, it becomes at your core to decide whether you want to post this number online and have people know your name or address. However, that's not always the case, and the situation differs on a case-by-case basis.
For example, some people are dealing with situations that prevent them from sharing their names or addresses online. In that case, they must be a little more careful and avoid any possible chances of sharing this information online.
However, others don’t care about people knowing their names or addresses because they don't have anything to worry about in terms of additional security steps. In that case, it won't matter much, and it might not be worth their time and investment trying to blur the license plate number.
Will there be a legal issue if I post someone else's license plate online?
We've all been in situations where we take general photos, and someone else's license plate might come in the photo. Will that be an issue, and is it considered legal?
The short answer is that there are no legal problems with posting someone else's license plate online because it's public information. However, it will differ significantly depending on your intent.
For example, suppose you were posting an available photo and not specifically highlighting someone else's license plates to harm them. In that case, there shouldn't be a problem with posting their license plate number online.
However, if the intention is to harm people and the other person confirmed that your intent of posting his license plate was for a reason and he has proof, this might involve some legal problems that you don't want to deal with.
Why would people want to take a picture of my license plates?
While we indicated before that there will be situations where your license plate number might go into some other people's photos, one might wonder why people would take a picture of my license plate.
There are various reasons why people would include your license plates in a photo. Let's take a closer look at some of these reasons:
1. General photos
A very common situation is that your vehicle might unintentionally get into a photo. For example, if someone's taken a general picture of a view, beach, or probably a road, your vehicle can easily get into the photo.
The reason for taking this photo was not intended to include your specific vehicle and to publish your license plate number. This is a very common situation, and it can happen every day because people tend to take pictures for most moments.
With the increased number of those holding phones with good camera quality, you'll see more and more chances of your vehicle getting inside those photos unintentionally.
2. Auto groups
Many online auto groups involve people who drive certain vehicles. Sometimes one might post a photo of a vehicle he's enthusiastic about, asking whether you're in the group or exploring some ideas about where to find a similar vehicle.
While this is a good situation, it's not recommended that you post other people's photos and leave their license plates, especially if the vehicle has certain personal information, like those who have messages on their license plates.
3. Car crashes
If you were involved in a car crash, it's very common for the other person or even someone on the road to take a picture of the collision and post the vehicle and the pictures online.
This is, again, not an intended situation to highlight your information or publish your identity to the public. There could be many reasons behind this photo, including educating people about a certain situation on a certain road to avoid traffic or report some local details.
4. Police reports
There are some chances where if you were involved in a certain situation that does not necessarily have to be a car accident, someone might take a picture of your license plate.
For example, suppose you've done something illegal that made someone else suspicious of your behavior. In that case, he might take your license plate photo as proof of identity to report the incident to the police officers.
This situation might happen if there is a problem between two drivers or two people where the vehicle is involved, and the problem cannot be resolved without any additional details from witnesses and pictures.
What do people think of good practices for posting vehicle pictures?
Although you might not be involved in certain legal problems if you post someone else's license plate picture unintentionally, there are some recommendations by professionals who take photos continuously, which include:
1. It's the photographer’s responsibility
If you're planning to post a picture of someone else's vehicle online, it's your responsibility to hide the information whenever possible. In other words, if you're a professional photographer planning to sell your images or post them in certain areas where the picture is exposed to many people, it's better to hide the personal information as much as possible whenever possible.
2. Assume everything could go wrong
On the other hand, if you're planning to post a picture of your vehicle online, you get to assume all possible things that could go wrong. In other words, if you're not interested in people knowing some basic information about yourself, like your name or your address, you'd better hide the image or blur the license plate number.
3. It depends on where you're posting your photo
The other thing to consider is that if you're planning to post your photo on social media, sometimes you might not need to blur the image if it's just exposed to people you know. In other words, if you have a private group for family members or close friends, you might not necessarily need to cover the license plate number because those people already know you and your license plate.
However, if you're planning to put it on the general public and you're still concerned that someone might get your information, it might take you a couple of minutes to blur the area where it shows your license plate number and then posts a photo.
A great example of these situations is when you post a vehicle for sale on social media, Craigslist, or any other larger platform that people might check when shopping for used vehicles.
What about famous people?
If you're a famous person or have many people interested in looking for your private and personal information, it might be worth spending the time covering the license plate number.
The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of famous people involves those in politics or movie stars. However, the number of people getting famous through social media is increasing significantly, and any person might have more than 1,000,000 followers without being involved in any particular industry.
That's why we notice a significant increase in people interested in whether posting license plate numbers are OK. Suppose you're one of those people with many followers. In that case, you never know what type of information people will need. You’d better be on the safe side by covering as much of your personal information as possible so people don't use it for any wrong reason that you do want to deal with.
It's unclear how smart people are getting now. If you're concerned about your personal information, it might not be worth risking it and posting anything that could help people know where you are living or even know your real name in some situations.
Should I cover my license plates online? Final thoughts
There is a very common practice for those people who cover their license plates whenever they post their vehicle pictures online. Some people might agree with this, while others might even make fun of them, like those involved in this Facebook group.
According to experts, the amount of information one can get from your license plate number is minimal. The agencies and people who can get this information are not the general public. Therefore, it might be okay to blur your license plates when posting your vehicle pictures online.
However, there are some instances and circumstances where people need to hide all potential information about their personal life. In that case, they're encouraged to cover the license plate number every time they post a photo on social media.
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