The practice of obscuring vehicle registration identifiers in images and videos shared online is a common one. This involves rendering the alphanumeric combination unreadable through techniques such as pixelation, blurring, or digital covering. An example of this would be altering a photograph of a car parked on a public street to prevent the license plate number from being clearly visible.
The primary motivation behind this action stems from privacy and security concerns. Making this information publicly available increases the potential for malicious actors to utilize it for purposes such as tracking vehicle movements, associating a vehicle with a specific address, or, in more extreme cases, facilitating identity theft. Historically, the need for this arose with the increased prevalence of online image sharing and the understanding of the potential risks associated with unfettered access to personal data.
