Censoring numbers in photos online

Stupid, ransom question: Why do people blur or scribble out numbers for no apparent reason online? For instance, serial numbers on a flashlight (seen here a few times), a license plate number, vendor's mailing address on package, etc.

I can go out into any parking lot right now and get 100 license plate numbers no problem. I can find the shipping "from" address from just about any manufacturer/vendor online.

As for the flashlight, if there was some way to use this against someone, wouldn't people buy a light, get the serial number, return it, then do whatever illegal activity you can supposedly do with this info when you're not the actual owner?

Maybe it's just so much fun to use MS Paint!

I'd say it amounts to two particularly good reasons. One being respect for others wish for privacy and security. The other is to protect your own privacy and security.

Privacy rights are important, and the numbers you mention are personally identifying numbers.

If you were asked to provide the information associated with those numbers to anyone wishing to view a post in a public forum, would you be willing to provide your full name, address, and potentially your phone numbers and other personal information? That's what you're doing if you indiscriminately publish such pictures online.

Empath said:

I'd say it amounts to two particularly good reasons. One being respect for others wish for privacy and security. The other is to protect your own privacy and security.

Privacy rights are important, and the numbers you mention are personally identifying numbers.

If you were asked to provide the information associated with those numbers to anyone wishing to view a post in a public forum, would you be willing to provide your full name, address, and potentially your phone numbers and other personal information? That's what you're doing if you indiscriminately publish such pictures online.

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full name, address, and phone numbers I understand, but the ones I stated don't seem to make sense to me. It's not a big deal, but like I said you can get them from walking around in a parking lot or online sometimes

Give me your license plate number, and I can come and visit you. Sure, I can just pick a random car at walmart and go to their house, but how do I know if they have a bunch of nice flashlights? If one has money for nice flashlights, one also has money for other luxuries. There are even certain agencies that are very adept at taking metadata that has little to no personally identifiable data and linking it to a single individual by cross-referencing several different sources of data. If legitimate folks can do it, bad folks can do it too.

My license plate is FW481. I drive a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee - so it's 8 years old but looks new. Someone may notice my nice $160 sunglasses (got them for $50 though!)

But by that logic, wouldn't every criminal make it easy and follow every BMW or Mercedes home to clean them out at night?

My grandma AND my mum tear their address off junk mail and shred it before throwing it away LOL

I don't like people knowing my registration plate number, or any of my other personal details.
i try to keep Echo63 separate from my real identity offline.
i am sure that it's easy enough for someone to find me if they really wanted, but I'm going to make it as difficult as possible.

As for serial numbers on lights, I'm not so worried, those can't really be used to ID me.
I also shred anything with my address on it before throwing it away (all old cards get minced with a guillotine)

I edit out others rego plates as I shoot a lot of Motorsport, some of the guys use their street cars.
insurance company's can get a bit funny about paying out for accidents if they know the car has been on a racetrack

Yeah, it's not so much about the number itself, or the address itself. It's being able to connect dots that is important.

markr6 said:

Stupid, random question: Why do people blur or scribble out numbers for no apparent reason online? For instance, serial numbers on a flashlight (seen here a few times), a license plate number, vendor's mailing address on package, etc.

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Some forums have very specific rules against giving free advertising to a non-sponsor brands. Regular members of such forums know that their pics. or even their entire topic will be deleted if that vendor's mailing address isn't covered up.

Over on the Watchuseek forums (biggest forum site for watch lovers) a new member posted his very expensive collection of watches. We're talking five and six figures, and I don't mean his entire collection. I mean individual pieces. Sell a couple, and buy a very nice house.

The guy posted his car ... along with his plate number. Yeah, not too bright.

You can go out into a parking lot and write down plenty of license plate numbers. So what? An unscrupulous individual is going to want the plate number of the car belonging to the guy with a small fortune in, for example, watches that he keeps in his home. With a plate number, it wouldn't take too much effort to track down the real address and name of that fancy watch collector. Check out his place. Maybe not much of a security system in place. And the scumbag already knows the place is worth robbing. Someone spending that much on watches likely has other "nice" things inside worth taking.

As for lights, yeah we know there are con-men out there making fake SureFires. Why help them out by giving them a legit serial number belonging to a certain light that they'd like to fake? Though much of the time I suspect it's just individuals wanting to protect their privacy.

Some worry about it more than others.



The "connect the dots" issue is more often than not the real issue.

In addition to the scenarios already mentioned, a hacker can then piece together guesses to your password choices for example if he knows you love certain brands, lights, AR15's, your dog's name, etc.

Will someone see a posted pic of a plate, and know where to find that car to look for your watches or lights? Probably not all by itself (Unless its a driveway shot, etc...), but, they may read a few other posts, seee you also work at the Sears at the local mall, and look in the lot for the car. (And maybe rob the HOUSE as they know where you are...)

Are they LIKELY to do it? No, not really, there's a point of diminishing return on their investment of time and effort, and what they can make if they put the energies elsewhere.....plus, your pic is diluted by billions of other pics, etc.

Its possible though...and, its happened.




In reality, you are in far worse danger if you pay by CC at a restaurant and they take the card, and bring back the slip to sign/add the tip, etc. Heck, carbon paper is one of the earliest hacking methods.


Or use wifi at local watering hole where a packet grabber could be stalking wifi traffic for info...such as what you typed first when prompted to log into the free wifi.....which for MOST people, is the password they use for about everything else, including their email, etc...and what you type to log into to your email, forum account, etc...

Once they have a PW and your email, they can fill out the boxes on those sites to change your PW and email...and they are you, and you are not.


So in the overall scheme of things, a non-blurry license plate pic is not a high risk issue, but, it all adds up.