Didn’t Mythbusters test all of these covers and coatings in like 2004 and basically none of them worked against a traffic cam of that era?
It’ll pretty much only do anything against a camera using a flash in the dark and even then that’s probably only marginal. In normal daytime illumination everyone and every thing will still be able to see your plate just fine.
I think I’d rather get a color e-ink display from China and mount it in a fake license plate frame, with a microcontroller behind it displaying a random assortment of plate styles and numbers as you drive along. If you see the 5-0, flip a the switch to lock it to your real plate number until they go away.
Cops have car mounted plate readers. If you see them, its already too late.
Also, you won’t see the drone
And the ICE guy waiting to shoot you in the face
Unless your e-ink display has some pretty magical properties, it’s going to be spotted by a cop at random sooner or later, whether that’s at a traffic light, on the highway behind you, or even if they just roll by at a parking lot.
Plus, I can assure you that the technology to instantly alert if a car shows a registration for, let’s say a blue honda, but looks like a red ford, has been around for longer than flock has been in the news. It’s why that shit with texas temporary license plates was such a big deal (you’d see them everywhere throughout the continent). Unless you have a way to know what other cars similar to yours have for their license plates, you’re going to get nabbed. And most places make your switching thing a pretty big deal as far as punishments go.
Plus, I can assure you that the technology to instantly alert if a car shows a registration for, let’s say a blue honda, but looks like a red ford
Ironically, I traded in my blue Honda for an orange Ford and drove it unregistered for almost an entire year and never got pulled over.
Dealership said the would handle switching the plates and registration, and didn’t do it. I only found out when I went to renew my reg.
You didn’t find it weird that you never received any documents for the car in the mail for a YEAR?
No I did find it weird. I also found it weird that my DMV has a 6 hr wait time, and I had other shit to do with my life. Plus, I don’t really buy cars all that frequently, so I’m not exactly sure what to expect when the reg gets flipped over. It’s not out of the question to assume that it was done online. I never even got temp plates, the dealership said it would be fine to use my old plates.
What the cops in NYC do is they wedge a leaf in the plate frame, so there’s always a leaf partially blocking 1 letter.
Leave it to the fucking pigs to come up with a somewhat reasonable, plausibly deniable way to avoid the law.
The Chinese, I ve heard use a magnetic leaf that can be remotely turned off.
Magic …
Only criminals would bicycle
Flock also captures WiFi and Bluetooth MAC addresses and IMEI for cell signals. Even if they don’t get a license plate if your car has wireless CarPlay or Android Auto, if you’re connected via Bluetooth, if you have an in car hotspot, or if you have any connected services (remote start, phone app, traffic), they can track you by that.
A license plate is no longer the only identifying piece of information.
As a person with modest theoretical knowledge and low practical experience in the matter (read: this might be an utterly bullshit idea), I kind of want to make a “Bluetooth shotgun” that responds to any AWK packets with a slew of spoofed info.
If such a thing were possible, I would then make it also listen for responses, and log them with a geolocation. I would then spoof those responses every time an awk was received around that area. (This is because nonsense data can be filtered to reveal just the real responses - my device(s), but inaccurate real data would destroy the value of the surveillance.)Editing to add - lots of considerations. I wouldn’t want to just attack random people’s home equipment that’s seeking to pair. Maybe it only blasts out a bunch of responses when it’s an undirected advertisement or the advertisement has a MAC that corresponds to spying companies,
https://f-droid.org/packages/de.simon.dankelmann.bluetoothlespam
I do not know if it works. I couldn’t get any BT connection notifications to show up on any Android devices I have here.
Most likely you would stand out as “the person with all the Bluetooth stuff”.
https://github.com/JiaoXianjun/BTLE
https://github.com/migraine-sudo/BTLE-RBecause I would love to see something like this exist, I went and found some prior art for doing arbitrary BTLE for you. Clankers seem to think SDR is necessary for the response-to-AWK bit because this is usually handled at the firmware/hardware level.
Can’t these things be disabled?
Some yes. Some no. Most of the the WiFi and BT can, but the car IMEI, usually no unless you yank the fuse/module.
Now even if you disable your car stuff. It can still track those same things for your personal phone. Have an Apple or Google Watch, Bluetooth is enabled. Little things like that, which make it worse because now instead of tracking a car, they’re tracking people/personal devices.
Sure. In the same way that you technically don’t have to have a phone, tablet, or computer to participate in the modem world.
Sure, But what good has participating in the modern world ever gotten me?
I find myself asking that question more and more often…
The PC term is demolished
Can still beat these with AI poisoning stickers on the plate. Mac spoofing, faraday bags, some car modification (we need open source head units) and more obvious solutions can all be used here.
Never said it was impossible, but more and more it requires you to further and further isolate yourself to have any meaningful privacy.
The cameras will track you anyways. You’ll just get tagged as “2003 Honda civic, gray, license plates unreadable…” along with a descriptive list of any stickers on the back of the car.
This is 2026 and we are still promoting this myth
This is a shitpost sir.
Some people actually believe it. I had a friend do it this week because of the trend.
Can I suggest paying closer to context clues?
The foolproof solution is to sneak up to the camera, at night, with no electronics on your person, and shoot the fucking thing down.
I mean, they make manual pipe cutters. They’re not that expensive and operate silently. No reason to activate the shot spotter microphones
I recently watched a video about the quickest and quietest way to cut through thin wall tube, that had absolutely nothing to do with cameras what so ever. They determined portable band saws were the most practical method; balance being relatively quiet compared to other power tools while being the quickest. Manual tools were most quiet but the slowest which leaves you vulnerable.
That’s very helpful to know, in case I need any poles or pipes cut! Thank you kind internet stranger!
I wonder how much a used Jaws of Life are. That would go through them like butter. Silent Butter, even!
The jaws themselves are huge plus you’d need a hydraulic power supply. Not very incognito.
Maybe you could retrofit them to be a one time use per charge and keep the power packs in a backpack? IDK man im doing my best over here.
“Shoot”!? I’m American too, but not all problems can/should be solved with guns…
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Wrong!
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This one can!
I did specify “should”! Hypothetically, cutting it down would be:
- more effective
- quieter
- risking fewer charges
- more permanent
Hey, don’t worry about how people get results, just be thankful that they’re willing to do something.
Risking fewer charges may actually not be true given how insane the gun laws are here.
“I was aiming at the bird that was attacking me”
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And take off your damn bumper stickers
They profile more than just the bumper stickers. Faded paint, scratches, dents, one headlight has a foggy casing, tread patterns on tires, whatever they can to illegally track you.
