Disagree. The fact that private information is in public view or publicized somewhere does not necessarily make it public information for all purposes. The question becomes whether further release or publication of the information constitutes an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

That is a subjective determination for the administrators. My name and address may be in the phone book, or on the Internet. I have a mezuzah on my front door in plain view. Would it be an unwarranted invasion of my privacy to publish my name and address on DCUM, along with my religious affiliation? You can probably find the amount I paid for my home on the I telnet, too. So let's throw that in. Maybe you can also determine my place of employment. Throw that in, too.

And now what you have is a separate aggregation of private information that was derived from obscure, yet public sources. Only now the information is aggregated in a much less obscure place.

It's an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. If you see a car parked in an obnoxious or obstructionist way, leave a note. Or call the police and have them ticketed. Don't start aggregating their personal information and posting it on the Internet.

Uncool.

It doesn't matter than you disagree or think it's uncool. The fact is, there is no law protecting what you call "personal privacy" in public space. According to the law, you have no personal privacy in public space and someone could actually post any available public information about you that they wish and they're doing nothing wrong.

Of course, for anyone to want to go to all that trouble could mean that you are a repeat offender so egregious that someone wants to humiliate you, or you happened upon the crazy and your own bad act will be forever remembered in the internet. Too bad. It isn't slander, defamation, or in any way wrong.

The best way to keep your bad acts off the internet is to not act badly.

So....all we have is a license plate that some people can read. We don't even have a location where the picture is taken. How is there any aggregatied personal information being posted? I could see if someone figured out how to identify the person whose car that is and then posted the info here, that's a problem. I really don't see why you are so upset over this.

Disagree. The fact that private information is in public view or publicized somewhere does not necessarily make it public information for all purposes. The question becomes whether further release or publication of the information constitutes an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

That is a subjective determination for the administrators. My name and address may be in the phone book, or on the Internet. I have a mezuzah on my front door in plain view. Would it be an unwarranted invasion of my privacy to publish my name and address on DCUM, along with my religious affiliation? You can probably find the amount I paid for my home on the I telnet, too. So let's throw that in. Maybe you can also determine my place of employment. Throw that in, too.

And now what you have is a separate aggregation of private information that was derived from obscure, yet public sources. Only now the information is aggregated in a much less obscure place.

It's an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. If you see a car parked in an obnoxious or obstructionist way, leave a note. Or call the police and have them ticketed. Don't start aggregating their personal information and posting it on the Internet.

Uncool.

Anonymous wrote:It is an invasion of privacy.

No, it's not. An invasion of privacy is what happened to Kate Middleton.

If you park your car like an ass and someone calls you on it, takes a photo of your heinous parking job and mocks you mercilessly on the Internet for it, that's neither defamation nor an invasion of privacy. On the contrary, someone who parks like that is deliberately calling attention to himself or herself.

I am horribly disappointed in the administrators of this forum that not only did they not remove the thread but condoned the behavior.

It is an invasion of privacy. Even the DMV has an anti-stalking policy. You can go there with someone's plate and get the name of the owner if there has been a hit-and-run. But if they think you just want to hassle someone, they will not give it to you. I was once in a situation where my car literally TOUCHED another car. We both got out of our cars and I looked at his car very carefully. There had been no damage but it was obvious he intended to make a meal of this situation. He called the police, then he called me a bitch, and I just left. He got my plate.

This had occurred on Rockcreek parkway, so I was called by the federal police. I told them my side of the story. The policeman went to look at this guy's car and did not see any damage. A week later the guy presented the police with an estimate for thousands in alleged damages to his car. The police knew at that point that I was in the right. He asked the police for my name, and he decided not to give it to him, citing the santi-stalking provision.

I disagree with Jeff that because one piece of information is public or in public view, it's OK to post it in conjunction with other identifying information on DCUM. What you've then done is create a separate item of public information (pic and plate), which in turn can be used to find other pieces of information, and before you know it you've got a whole mosaic.

Just because a piece of information is public does not mean that it should be further released to the public. My name and number is in the phone book. That's public. Do I want that information prominently posted on DCUM? No. If a piece of public information is fairly obscure, it can be an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy to publicize it further or more prominently.

At the time my car touched this freak's car, I was single and living alone. The Rock Creek police, after talking to both of us, figured out that this guy had a screw lose, and so he did not give him the name of the corresponding plate and warned DC DMV not to do so. The result was that he had my plate, which is public, but not in conjunction with my name, which is also public. The police looked at the totality of the circumstances and decided that he did not want to give this creep my name and then have the well-being of a single woman on his conscience.

I know people will ask why I didn't wait for the police to come. Here's my answer: I was already late for an appointment; it was getting dark and I had no idea when the police would come; I hadn't done any damage to his car that I could see; it was getting dark and I was not about to sit alone on the side of the road with a man calling me a bitchn and who obviously was going to try to milk this non-thing.

Jeff, take heed,

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:License plates are publicly displayed. What is private about them?

I think what is private, or what is problematic, is the photo linking a particular license plate with a "bad act." An act of bad parking. Whatever you want to call it. I don't claim to be a perfect driver and while my license plate is public too I don't want a photo of my car put on DCUM with some quip about my "special parking job." Or maybe someone could post about how I don't deserve my handicapped tag. [Since that's public too.]

I think this is really pushing it.

While this particular example is not a very good case on which to set precedent since it is not a particularly egregious violation, your reaction could actually be an argument in favor of posting such pictures on the Internet. Perhaps the fear of having your picture show up on the Internet would cause people to think twice before engaging in "bad acts"?

Most "bad acts" are negligent. And one person's "bad act" is another person screaming "Jeff, I'm suing for defamation..." But food for thought.

Pretty bad food. It's a photo. What's the defamation? Everyone can see for themselves that the parking job is awful, and probably deliberately so. Unless it is Photoshopped or something, there's no lie involved. So, what's the defamation?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised that Jeff doesn't want to delete it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought in the past he deleted threads that were calling out cars/poor drivers that had identifying information about the car.

Not accurate.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/132872.page#1149124

There are many other similar posts out there.

I think he just does what he usually does - let's the kids play until it looks like someone may get hurt.

Nowhere in that post did someone put a specific license plate. They talk about the make/model, they mention stickers, but they do not put license plate info.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
jsteele wrote:
License plates are publicly displayed. What is private about them?


I think what is private, or what is problematic, is the photo linking a particular license plate with a "bad act." An act of bad parking. Whatever you want to call it. I don't claim to be a perfect driver and while my license plate is public too I don't want a photo of my car put on DCUM with some quip about my "special parking job." Or maybe someone could post about how I don't deserve my handicapped tag. [Since that's public too.]

I think this is really pushing it.


While this particular example is not a very good case on which to set precedent since it is not a particularly egregious violation, your reaction could actually be an argument in favor of posting such pictures on the Internet. Perhaps the fear of having your picture show up on the Internet would cause people to think twice before engaging in "bad acts"?

I agree.

First of all, there is no expectation of privacy in a public arena, so, frankly, if you act like an ass and someone snaps your picture, it is absolutely fair to post it not only here, but all over the internet.

Secondly, if public shaming will motivate you to act within the law, than more power to that. i'm tired of people running red lights, intimidating pedestrians who have the light, and generally acting like entitled assholes. Anyone who does this deserves to be called out.

Finally, your view of your small discretion is more than likely an excuse for bad behavior. If your photo is linked to a bad act, try foregoing the excuses and not park or drive poorly enough for someone to want to take your photo and post it on the internet. Think of it this way. You have to act like a grade A jerk to motivate someone to go to the trouble to upload your photo; people don't follow through if you simply cut them off once or park over the line. Therefore, if your license is found here, you are a serious jerk.

Don't like it? Drive and park more responsibly.

Ditto!

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised that Jeff doesn't want to delete it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought in the past he deleted threads that were calling out cars/poor drivers that had identifying information about the car.

Not accurate.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/132872.page#1149124

There are many other similar posts out there.

I think he just does what he usually does - let's the kids play until it looks like someone may get hurt.

I'm surprised that Jeff doesn't want to delete it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought in the past he deleted threads that were calling out cars/poor drivers that had identifying information about the car.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:License plates are publicly displayed. What is private about them?

I think what is private, or what is problematic, is the photo linking a particular license plate with a "bad act." An act of bad parking. Whatever you want to call it. I don't claim to be a perfect driver and while my license plate is public too I don't want a photo of my car put on DCUM with some quip about my "special parking job." Or maybe someone could post about how I don't deserve my handicapped tag. [Since that's public too.]

I think this is really pushing it.

While this particular example is not a very good case on which to set precedent since it is not a particularly egregious violation, your reaction could actually be an argument in favor of posting such pictures on the Internet. Perhaps the fear of having your picture show up on the Internet would cause people to think twice before engaging in "bad acts"?

No, I don't think so. What if I lent my car to my friend/sister/nanny for the day and she did it? Yet everyone I know associates the vehicle with me? What if it was inadvertant? Dire circumstance?

Public shaming? Like the stockades? Will we be gathering groups to throw verbal rotten vegetables as well?

Because people you know remember your license plate? I barely remember my own.

Anonymous wrote:Let's start posting photos of Metro riders who take up two seats.

Let's start posting photos of jaywalkers.

Let's start posting photos of the license plates of cars that turn right at "No Turn on Right" intersections.

Let's start posting the photos of parents who let their less than 12 year old ride in the front passenger seat.

Let's expose them all and eventually we'll get to you.

Big Sister has spoken.

I actually am not sure what the purpose of posting a license plate would be. If you want to shame her into correcting her behavior, you can make it clear you are talking about her with so many other details.

Let's start posting photos of Metro riders who take up two seats.

Let's start posting photos of jaywalkers.

Let's start posting photos of the license plates of cars that turn right at "No Turn on Right" intersections.

Let's start posting the photos of parents who let their less than 12 year old ride in the front passenger seat.

Let's expose them all and eventually we'll get to you.

Would I post someone else's license plate? No. Is it illegal or immoral? Certainly not. The car is parked in a public place where anyone can see it anyway.