Should I hide my license plate in pictures or videos?
Think carefully before storing a video on the cloud, sharing it with another person, or uploading it to YouTube, TikTok, or other social media platforms. If it shows license plates and other personal data, you might legally need to blur parts of the video to help protect people’s privacy.
The law on blurring license plates in videos varies by region. In some circumstances, publishing a video showing people’s license plates might be illegal or lead to a lawsuit. As we’ll see, people have even used license plate numbers to commit serious crimes.
Anonymizing a video by blurring license plates is a quick and simple process. So even if it’s not clear whether privacy law requires you to blur someone’s license plate or face before sharing a video, it’s likely a good idea to do so.
Are we legally required to blur license plates in videos?
Does the law require you to blur license plates in a video or photo before sharing it? Like with almost every legal question: It depends.
As a general rule, you should always take reasonable steps to protect people’s privacy. This includes using video anonymization software, which provides an easy way to blur faces and license plates in videos. In some circumstances, the law is even clearer.
Here’s how the law applies to videos of license plates in Europe and the United States.
Europe
In Europe, the main law that covers blurring license plates is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The GDPR applies across the European Economic Area (EEA)—that’s every EU country plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. A practically identical law exists in the UK, known as the “UK GDPR,” and Switzerland has similar legislation.
The GDPR applies very broadly
Individuals, businesses, and other organizations are covered by the GDPR regardless of their size or sector.
There’s an exemption to the GDPR for “purely personal or household activities.” However. regulators and courts across Europe have found that this exemption does not apply to activities like:
- Running a Facebook “fan page”
- Using CCTV on your own property
- Uploading photos of other people to social media
Uploading videos to YouTube, social media, or even a personal website is likely covered by the GDPR if the videos include personal data.
The GDPR can apply to license plates
The GDPR is all about “processing personal data.”
- “Personal data” means information related to an identifiable individual. If a piece of information could be used to identify a person, directly or indirectly, it can be personal data.
- “Processing” personal data means, effectively, doing anything with it.
License plates can be personal data, and recording or publishing videos of license plates can be “processing personal data”.
Under the GDPR, you must take steps to protect personal data and avoid violating people’s rights. Such steps can include anonymizing videos by blurring license plates and faces.
The principle of “data minimization” requires that you only process the personal data necessary for a specific purpose.
If you blur license plates and other personal data from a video or photo, the video will be anonymous and not subject to the GDPR. You can publish the blurred video without worrying about data protection law. You’ll still need to comply with the GDPR with respect to the unblurred video.
Case study: Property company receives GDPR fine for displaying a license plate
Here’s a real example of how the GDPR applies to images of license plates, from November 2023.
A Greek property company published a photo of a house on its website. The company had seized the house from its previous owner. The previous owner’s son’s car was parked in the driveway, and the photo showed the car’s license plate.
The individual complained that the property company had violated his privacy. Because his license plate was visible, his social circle identified his car and learned that his family’s property had been seized.
When the individual complained, the property company replaced the photo with an anonymized version where the license plate was redacted. But it was too late—the company received a €20,000 fine, partly for failing to redact the car’s license plate before publishing the photo.
Note that, while someone’s privacy was violated in this case, data protection regulators can enforce the GDPR against a company even if no one has been harmed or even made a complaint.
United States
The complex US privacy landscape mostly consists of state law, sector-specific regulation, and many, many lawsuits.
For example, in June 2024, a California court will hear a case against a company that allegedly scanned people’s license plates and sold information about their locations.
Some federal privacy laws cover license plate numbers indirectly. For example, an image of a student’s license plate might form part of an “education record” under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
But the US has also passed a privacy law specifically to protect license plate numbers and other driver-related data.
Case study: Criminals obtain home addresses via license plate numbers
Before the mid-90s, individuals in most US states could use a person’s license plate number to obtain their home address from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). This policy led to a series of serious crimes.
In 1989, 21-year-old actor Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered by a stalker who had obtained her home address using her license plate number.
Speaking in support of stricter driver privacy legislation in 1993, Senators Barbara Boxer and Chuck Robb cited several similar crimes committed by people who had obtained people’s home addresses via their license plate numbers, including:
- A 31-year-old man who sent threatening letters to five women in their early twenties
- An obsessive fan who assaulted a fashion model in her home
- Protestors who left black balloons and anti-abortion literature on a woman’s doorstep
In response to these and other cases, Congress passed the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) in 1994, restricting access to motor vehicle records.
More broadly, these incidents show how important it is to protect license plate numbers and other personal data.
State privacy laws
While the DPPA doesn’t necessarily require the redaction of license plate numbers, new privacy laws at the state level might have relevant implications.
US privacy law is developing fast, and businesses are held to increasingly high standards when processing personal data.
Seventeen US states have now passed “comprehensive privacy laws” that apply across sectors and require the protection of a broad range of personal data, including:
- The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
- The Texas Data Protection and Security Act (TDPSA)
- The Maryland Online Data Privacy Act (MODPA), which imposes particularly strict “data minimization requirements
These laws use GDPR-style language to define “personal data” or “personal information,” which could include license plates.
They require covered businesses to establish reasonable security measures to protect personal information. In certain circumstances, this could include blurring license plates and other identifiers before sharing a video.
Old article from 14.09.2022
Should you blur car number plates in videos?
You should make all reasonable efforts to protect people’s privacy and ensure compliance with data protection and privacy laws. This includes blurring license plates and faces before sharing or otherwise using a video.
Laws like the GDPR and CCPA require you to take reasonable steps to protect personal information, which can include license plates.
Recent advancements in anonymization software mean there is now an easy way to blur license plates in videos, helping you to protect people’s privacy and avoid regulatory concerns and potential lawsuits.
It's true; according to GDPR, number plates are considered a form of personal data, just like the address, phone number, email address, etc. Under this regulation , “any information which are related to an identified or identifiable natural person” constitutes personal data. But does it mean that knowing this single piece of your personal data is dangerous in any way? No. In fact, posting license plates online is no different than posting a physical or email address of your company.
Can my identity be stolen if someone knows my name and license plate number?
No. There are regulations and safety measures that prevent this from happening. A potential identity thief should have far more sensitive information about a given person to try and steal their identity. For example, in the United States, there is a regulation called Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA), and it prohibits “the disclosure of personal information without the express consent of the person to whom such information applies”. Moreover, DPPA explicitly lists circumstances under which data related to a license plate number could be disclosed. Therefore, no one has to worry; it is not possible to steal one's identity with just a number plate. Even if they knew more about a given person, e.g., their home address or a phone number, that's still not enough.
And what in Europe? Here, it's a similar story with GDPR. This regulation applies strict rules for processing data based on consent. Here, it's common to sign a GDPR-based data processing consent, e.g., when someone wants to go to a doctor, open a bank account, or even have their car repaired. That's because, without such a consent, these companies and institutions cannot process personal information, even if they had it at their disposal. You can read more about data protection under GDPR here .
What about other people's license plates?
In general, if you want to be safe on every front, you should anonymize other people's license plates, making them illegible in your photos or videos, especially when they constitute a large part of the picture, e.g., when you photograph a specific car or have video surveillance of a space where cars park or drive by. This way, you don't risk being sued for privacy infringement. Moreover, in theory, if someone saw their car (or themselves) on such a video, it could be a reason for a lawsuit if that was a reason for some sort of loss (e.g. loss of reputation, or in a divorce case if that person was accused of cheating etc.).
If you're looking for a tool that can help you with blurring license plates, take a look at our solution (what's important, Gallio works with license plate patterns from all over the world).
Do you want to know more? Get in touch with our team today.
