Invisible Privacy | Online Privacy

The following quote is from Duncan Long’s book Protect Your Privacy:

“According to the FBI, a Washington, D.C police officer was attempting to extort $10,000 from a married man who had visited a gay bar. The officer had apparently employed a law-enforcement computer system to identify automobile license plates of cars that had been recorded as being outside the bar, and then linked the plates to the names and addresses of the vehicles. He then cross-referenced to see if the men were married, and if they were, he attempted to extort money from them. According to the FBI, the officer threatened to send photos showing the men at the bar to wives and employers if the victims didn’t cough up silence money.”

You may never visit a gay bar but think of the many other dangers of allowing your name (and sometimes even your home address!) to appear on your vehicle’s registration. Just one example: You innocently park in front of a home known to harbor a meth lab. You may get a visit from the police. Or perhaps the home is a so-called safe house for a Muslim terrorist cell. You may get a visit from the FBI. Or suppose the home is that of women who’s being stalked by her insanely jealous ex-husband—you might even get beaten up!

Each of our five vehicles is titled in a separate New Mexico LLC. The address for each New Mexico LLC is in Spain’s Canary Islands. We often lend our vehicles to friends. What if one of these friends would happen to park in front of the wrong home or the wrong bar? As Alfred E. Neuman would say, “What? Me worry?”

Labels: ghost address, license plate, New Mexico LLC, NM LLC, tracing a license plate

I will not list the variety of legal reasons for which you may suddenly wish to change your license plate number. I will, however, list a recent example that involved one of my consulting clients. (Names have been changed.)

David White spent a long evening at the home of Maria Flores, an attractive young Mexican widow who lives in a village nearby. His beige Camry was parked in her driveway.

When the time came to leave, David opened Maria’s front door, snapped on the outside light, and spotted two men at the back of his car. One was holding a flashlight and the other had a pad and pencil in his hand. David yelled and reached into his jacket as if to withdraw a handgun. Both men fled. He called me at sunrise the next morning and asked me what to do.

“I need to use my car today but these guys have got my license plate number!”

"It can't be traced, David." (Following my instructions, it was titled in the name of a New Mexico LLC with a ghost address.)

"But these guys and their pals will be watching for it!"

“I'll meet you down at the licensing bureau when they open,” I said. "You'll get a new plate that shows you contribute to a law enforcement memorial. You’ll pay an extra $40 a year, but you get the plate right away.”

I keep a drawer full of decals and bumper stickers for every occasion, and I selected one before heading out to meet David. His car now has a new license plate with a silhouette of some law enforcement officers on the left side, and also a prominent decal in one corner of the rear window:

FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE
2009
ACTIVE SUPPORTER

(How David arranges to meet with Maria in the future will be up to him. My duties ended with the decal and the plate change.)

Labels: consulting, ghost address, license plate, license plate privacy, NM LLC, tracing a license plate, vanity plate