http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/675

http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/727

http://nyc.uncivilservants.org/post/index/418

The uncivilservants crew didn’t blanch and came right back with lots of rational arguments. Gradually the violent and irrational verbal attacks began to recede (they are by no means gone), and some rational voices among law enforcement commenters emerged. It was in this context that the debate highlighted in this streetsblog post concerning the license plates emerged.

The overall debate at uncivilservants is extraordinary. It could never take place face to face. Some sociology grad student is going get a dissertation topic (at least) out of this. Bravo to Efficient Streets, Greg, and the rest of the uncivilservants.org crew for taking the risks to create such a unique forum.

Folks at Streetsblog should upload a post or two there (I recommend license obscured to the public but reported to Uncivilservants.org) and check out the whole discussion.

Unless? The site will either personally shame city employees into following the law, or it will do nothing at all. The fact that there is a general problem is known to everyone, and is as boring as a picture of a bunch of anonymous, illegally parked cars.

Maybe the permit ID number will be enough to spur action by the city, or maybe it is just a way to internalize the information and continue to look the other way. I hope that the site will take a second look at the game being played if they notice a sudden drop-off in interest from the city, commenting cops, and contributors.

Incidentally, Metrocard and EZ Pass records, are obtainable only by court order. That makes them more secure than most of your “private” information.

Yes, David, this is taking already public information and making it more public, and as such is no more illegal than public webcams. But legal or not, there are real consequences to collecting and aggregating public information, and they shouldn’t be done lightly.

This is similar to lots of other privacy invasions in the past several years. A lot of public information is now being aggregated by the government and by corporations. It used to be that if someone wanted to track your movements they had to have a cop or a PI follow you around. Now they can look at your bank and credit card records to see where you’ve spent and withdrawn money, and if you use a cell phone or EZ-Pass they can track that too. If you paid for your Metrocard with a credit card, they can get a list of every station you swiped it at.

Yes, most of this is public information, in that someone can see you swiping your Metrocard, or buying birth control, or driving through the Midtown Tunnel. But the aggregation of information has real effects, and legal or not we should approach it with caution.

But, as Doc Barnett points out in the very first comment, there’s no privacy issue here. Public information is simply being publicized further.

If anybody can look up the address associated with any license plate, THAT would appear to be the big privacy issue.

I don’t think there is any question this information is irrelevant for the site unless you personally want to shame someone or call them out personally

Since displaying the plate numbers isn’t necessary to the goals of the site, it seems like a reasonable compromise to avoid it.

If my car is parked on the street, anybody who happens to walk past can see its license plate.

If I’m concerned that my license plate number remain private while the car is parked, I have to park it out of the public’s view. (Even then, it’s still visible when I drive on public streets.) If I park on a public street (legally or illegally), people will see my license plate — and they might jot down the number or even take a picture of it.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of places where police vehicles are clearly parked illegally (sidewalks especially). And I’m talking obviously long-term commuter parking, not in any way relatable to emergencies.

Here’s the general rule I would support:

Legal type of permit, but parked illegally or expired permit, write down the permit number. (maybe keep a copy of your own of the plate number for back-up)

Illegal or fabricated permit, write down the plate.

“would you want any of the cops that you bash so quickly on this site to know where you live? I didnt think so”

Well, last time I checked – everytime a police officer stops a cyclist (or anybody for that matter) he/she is required to give their home address and ID or be ticketed or even arrested.

I think some police officers are just miffed at all of a sudden being trated like everyone else…However, I don’t think they need the licensce plate on uncivilservants.org – just the permit ID. Of course, if they don’t have a permit ID – then I would say that the liscense plate is fair game.

I’m surprised their “privacy” claim is being taken seriously at all; there is no expectation of privacy for car license plates. They’re in plain view. That’s the argument that’s been used to give up many of the public’s privacy rights to, actually, the police. Well boys, it goes both ways.