Blanking out registration numbers

[lakesrally]

Mike Evans has brought up this subject on the email group, which is still going and preferred by some members, but I thought it might be an idea to air the subject here. What are members thoughts regarding removing registration numbers from photographs posted on the web? My personal thoughts are that there is little point in hiding the registration number of older cars, they are hardly going to be of interest to the criminal element who are cloning vehicles. However I am not so sure about more modern cars. Should we get the vehicle owner's permission before posting pictures which include registration numbers? Blanking out the numbers is a bit of a pain to do if you are going to post a lot of pictures but might it be required because of the data protection legislation? I am no legal expert and do not want to upset anyone by posting pictures of their cars with numbers but I would like to put onto photobucket, with links to this forum, a pile of pictures from the last NTPR and last weekend's National rally without too much flak.

[47p2]

At the end of the day if the crooks want a number to clone they just go into a carpark and look for the same make and colour of car they want. I personally don't see the point in hiding the number of classics as it will be on almost every camera that was at the last rally you attended and therefore most likely be posted on the net somewhere

[Phil - Nottingham]

I agree with 47p2 - there is not much point - if owners object then it is up to them to request removal - it does not count as personal data anyway under the DPA.

If owners make their cars available for public viewing/ even dare drive them on roads or park them on their drives then there is risk of someone cloning them but that is life and there are other more important things surely

[Tim Moore]

Stewart, legally I have no idea where one stands, but I have never ever thought about blanking number plates out, although many of the vehicles listed for sale on websites etc have their numbers blanked out as you know, classics as well as moderns.