[alinnes]

Might be a really dumb question, but why do folks (UK in particular) blank out the number plate on photos on posts and personal galleries ??

[Restyle]

Its Generally done to prevent Car-cloning, where someone could steal a car and put on it Plates they`d seen of an identical car on the internet.

[Mini Lou]

I'd always wondered that too, your not dumb Alinnes!

[the W'rkncacnter]

The same reason you don't really want to give out your address over the internet to just anyone.

[Ian Clark]

What the others said.

Also Number 1 Rule: If you're going to post pictures that have someone else cars in the picture, make sure you blank out Their number plate as well.

[gezmedinger]

The car cloning thing seems to make sense... but what's to stop someone on the street seeing your car and writing down your number plate? It's not like a search on google for Black Mini Cooper is going to bring up pictures of your car on mini2 is it?

[xplode]

what's to stop someone from smashing your window to your house and get in and nick all your stuff when you're gone? not much, so might as well leave it unlocked and post signs saying "i'm gone, and i have all this cool stuff in here"?

the point of blanking out the plate on photos online is so as not to make it easier for the prospective cloner - it's not making it impossible, but why hand it to him on a plate? i think that's the general thought.

[RobHardyUK]

Personally I never bother. but i guess i should!

[Minnie Mouse]

Oh I do it so Minnie don't get stalked!!! I mean, a good looking Mini like me, black and shiny with all her bits in the right places......not to mention, chrome wing mirrors

Her boyfriend Tarquin would get sooooo upset

Minnie xx

[MINILLA]

Personally I just find it a real pain to find some mud - or something equally messy - and then taking the time to go out to the car to smear it all over my nice clean number plate just so as to make it illegible!

[alinnes]

OK, so I find it hard enough to get pics up in the first place- so how do I now go about blanking out the number plate - not being a web techie kind of person ?

[MINILLA]

Non - techies use the MUD method!

[LMB]

Quote: Originally Posted by gezmedinger

The car cloning thing seems to make sense... but what's to stop someone on the street seeing your car and writing down your number plate? It's not like a search on google for Black Mini Cooper is going to bring up pictures of your car on mini2 is it?

Since we list the spec of our cars, the cloners would be able to create an exact match if they got hold of our number plate.

We don't want to make things too easy for them.

[Ian Clark]

Quote: Originally Posted by alinnes

OK, so I find it hard enough to get pics up in the first place- so how do I now go about blanking out the number plate - not being a web techie kind of person ?

The easiest way is to get something like Paint Shop Pro 7 (8 is awful). Using either the Selection tool or free hand selection, surround the characters and use Gaussian blur to blur out the plate.

There are some other free applications out there that can do it for you as well.

As mentioned, you can't stop the normal person on the street taking your plate number down but the Internet is a resource for all and I'd rather my plate not be available to view on the web.. as mentioned, it's just one preventative measure

[NightFox]

You’ll also see this on the TV, particularly on the news, but even on fictional stuff where you’ll see the plates of “actor” cars, but any “real” cars (parked on the side of the road etc) will have their plates blurred out

[Ian Clark]

Heh... however Jeremey Clarkson thinks it's perfectly ok to show an image of someone's car and registration plate AND also read it out loud.

He was doing a quick thing on things he hates drivers doing and one of these was drivers hogging the middle lane on the motorway he then said "and yes, that includes you sir with registration number xxxxxxxx"

Now don't get me wrong, I loved the name and shame aspect but I'm not sure it was right to broadcase his registration on national TV.

[LordWinslow]

I do it in all my photos no matter how small the plate is in the photo. I have Windows XP, and you can use the default image viewer that they package. You can edit the photos, that is what I use and it works fine.

Winslow

[ScottyB]

I do it when I post my pictures on other sites - but dont really bother with it on M2.

Plus my MINI is about the only PS/B MCS ive ever seen.

[ScottyB]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian Clark

Heh... however Jeremey Clarkson thinks it's perfectly ok to show an image of someone's car and registration plate AND also read it out loud.

He was doing a quick thing on things he hates drivers doing and one of these was drivers hogging the middle lane on the motorway he then said "and yes, that includes you sir with registration number xxxxxxxx"

Now don't get me wrong, I loved the name and shame aspect but I'm not sure it was right to broadcase his registration on national TV.

Do you reckon it would have been the motorists real plate though?

Hmmm.... this is Jeremy Clarkson were talking about though isnt it?

[Lee L]

Question for those in the UK which might clear things up some, do your plates have stamped letters and numbers? Most states in the US issue plates that are not only painted but stamped, making it more difficult to fake plates. Also, aren't your plates tied ot the car pretty much forever? Theoretically, in the US, if you wanted to go to the trouble, you can go and get a different number each year and/or reassign a certain plate to a different car when you trade in.

In fact, I would say there is much more outright plate theft than anything else here. I guess the criminal assumes that having a plate even if the officer can look it up and see that it is wrong is better than no plate as far as arousing suspicion.