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Google Earth, Street View


mark99

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I have sometimes seen car registration marks airbrushed over in photographs. I can see no point whatsoever in doing this. Is it to confuse the enemy?

They way many on the forum don't want anyone tracking their movements it is probably a nod in that direction by Google.

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They way many on the forum don't want anyone tracking their movements it is probably a nod in that direction by Google.

 

When it first came out, there was a bloke exiting a sex shop in Soho ................. who complained.

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They way many on the forum don't want anyone tracking their movements it is probably a nod in that direction by Google.

Then why not extend the policy to house numbers, street names, signposts, in fact anything which can enable the viewer to establish where the photo was taken> Rhetorical question of course - such action would negate the whole point of Street View.

 

Does someone in authority think, perhaps, that a Nissan Micra whose number plate is exposed on a photograph is more likely to be stolen than one on which it's illegible? I may be missing something obvious, but it's not obvious to me.

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Then why not extend the policy to house numbers, street names, signposts, in fact anything which can enable the viewer to establish where the photo was taken> Rhetorical question of course - such action would negate the whole point of Street View.

 

Does someone in authority think, perhaps, that a Nissan Micra whose number plate is exposed on a photograph is more likely to be stolen than one on which it's illegible? I may be missing something obvious, but it's not obvious to me.

 

On the motorbike forums I visit, we fuzz out our numberplates (in images) in a hope to reduce cloning of plates and points being stacked up on your plate!

Edited by mark99
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Does someone in authority think, perhaps, that a Nissan Micra whose number plate is exposed on a photograph is more likely to be stolen than one on which it's illegible? I may be missing something obvious, but it's not obvious to me.

No, but it helps stop cloning a stolen car, or if you own a Micra, you get a number plate made up, then happily whizz past speed cameras and into London's congestion zone without paying.
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Then why not extend the policy to house numbers, street names, signposts, in fact anything which can enable the viewer to establish where the photo was taken> Rhetorical question of course - such action would negate the whole point of Street View.

 

Does someone in authority think, perhaps, that a Nissan Micra whose number plate is exposed on a photograph is more likely to be stolen than one on which it's illegible? I may be missing something obvious, but it's not obvious to me.

 

....because Google Earth isn't a surveillance system, because the images are possibly 2+ years out of date, although more likely on average about 6 months out of date.

 

A car + its colour + registration number is a very good start in cloning. For example, a thief could steal another red Nissan Micra of the same year as one whose reg they know, apply that reg, and any HPI checks would come back clear etc on the stolen car's "wrong plate".

 

Since boats are much more distinctive, they are much less likely to be cloned in this way.

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Probably because unscrupulous people clone number plates to avoid speeding fines and/or congestion charges.

 

I'm sure once they introduce speed cameras on the canals and a boating congestion charge for London, then cloning of boat registration numbers will begin to happen and Google will have to blank them out :)

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Hmmm, not convinced. Anyone who wanted to "clone" a red Micra could simply walk along a street or round a car park until he found one - they are not rare - , make a note of its registration mark and carry on from there.

 

If he (and surely such ne'er do wells must be hes) wished to do the same with a Morgan Aero or a Panhard Dyna, for example, he could be in for a long walk - but then I don't suppose that they show up on Street View very often either.

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Hmmm, not convinced. Anyone who wanted to "clone" a red Micra could simply walk along a street or round a car park until he found one - they are not rare - , make a note of its registration mark and carry on from there.

 

If he (and surely such ne'er do wells must be hes) wished to do the same with a Morgan Aero or a Panhard Dyna, for example, he could be in for a long walk - but then I don't suppose that they show up on Street View very often either.

 

I think early on in the days of street view Google got complaints not only about possible cloning but from people who were identified by their number plate in a location that for various reasons they didn't want other people to know they had been to. Make of that what you will.

 

The equipment/software now automatically obliterates anything it detects that could be a vehicle registration plate, so I'm surprised it doesn't blur boat numbers too, in fact I thought it did but perhaps I'm wrong.

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Hmmm, not convinced. Anyone who wanted to "clone" a red Micra could simply walk along a street or round a car park until he found one - they are not rare - , make a note of its registration mark and carry on from there.

 

If he (and surely such ne'er do wells must be hes) wished to do the same with a Morgan Aero or a Panhard Dyna, for example, he could be in for a long walk - but then I don't suppose that they show up on Street View very often either.

 

Street view effectively lets the thief in your first paragraph virtually "walk along the street" without actually needing to do so......

 

In your second paragraph, you're right, in that rarer cars are much less suceptible to being cloned or stolen. For example, I bet if you stole a Mk1 VW Scirocco, you'd get absolutely nowhere because 1) there's only about 3 roadworthy ones on the UK roads at the moment so you'll unlikley find another in the same colour to clone 2) there would be no chance of reselling it because everyone who'd be interested in one, would know that it was a stolen one.

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I think early on in the days of street view Google got complaints not only about possible cloning but from people who were identified by their number plate in a location that for various reasons they didn't want other people to know they had been to.

By Google, I think he's got it.

"So what were you doing parked outside no. 34 Blonk Street? Isn't that where that Doris with the big tits lives?"

 

That's the most convincing explanation I've yet seen.

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Hmmm, not convinced. Anyone who wanted to "clone" a red Micra could simply walk along a street or round a car park until he found one - they are not rare - , make a note of its registration mark and carry on from there.

I have been given to understand that you don't want to clone a vehicle from your area. Too much chance of both cars being seen together or even the cloned car by the owner of the legit car.

 

So street view gives you an easy way of checking for suitable numbers from other areas. Well it would if number plates were being shown.

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Google are probably following data protection legislation. It is an offence to hold data without the permission of the individual which would prob include their car registration. I doubt they are just being kind to kerb crawlers.

Edited by Sadelady
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I have been given to understand that you don't want to clone a vehicle from your area. Too much chance of both cars being seen together or even the cloned car by the owner of the legit car.

 

 

You are remarkably well informed.biggrin.png That does make sense, though.

I have a photo of our boat and the one which moored next to it one day. Both are called 'Trojan'. I'm just waiting for the rude letters from CART to start arriving.

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I think the obscuring of faces and car number plates is done automatically by some clever algorithm. Some years ago I noticed a streeview image of the side of a London bus which carried an advert for the latest blockbuster film (can't remember what it was now). And the image had the leading actor's face on the poster obscured!

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