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.
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.
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.
I used to live in Louisiana and I drove there for three years with an expired out of state license plate and no insurance. Finally got pulled over, told the cops I just forgot about that stuff, and got off with a $125 ticket. If I'd had a bit more melanin I'd still be in Angola prison today.
Allow me to introduce you to the magic world of pdlc, and especially pdlc in the same size as your license plates. Its not even that expensive and can be flipped from a switch as well.
Couldn't you make it automatic and do it. Don't get have devices that detect all the wireless crap going on in a police car? For educational purposes only of course
You would need a mix of IR absorbing material and IR reflective material like what they use in Zenni ID guard glasses.
An easier way to go about it would just be to install a bright IR light pointed at your plate, it would create a glare that would make it impossible for the camera to read.
I have an IR scope for one of my rifles and thought it would be a bright idea to install a IR flashlight to help boost the field of vision....... The flashlight I got was so bright that it just tuned the whole image white.
So there are things that would work, but it would probably get you in more trouble than anything. It's illegal in every state to attempt to obscure your tags from being tracked in any way.
This is my right. It'd be pretty simple to install a small ring of IR LED around your plate and wire them into the car lights and a back up battery in the trunk. Basically keep it glowing 24/7. Probably like, 30 bucks in hardware from Ali to start from scratch.
Kind of wonder what it'd be like to frame he whole car in it. Like a ghostly kia soul.
Might be a way to get around the intentional blocking of your plate. If you installed a bright enough IR light bar on the roof of your car pointing down the front and back.... You would probably just show up as a moving block of light, might not even be recognized as a car by the AI.
And the flocks are IR cameras, so better would be broadcasting a ton of IR light around your license plate. That being said, the camera also looks for type/size of rims and tires, window tint, visible damage, bumper stickers, dirt level, so while your license plate blocking may stop it from looking you up it won't stop it from tracking where you're going
I just cover my entire car with flexible screens and cameras. The image from one side of the car is displayed on the images of the other side of the car. Can't track a car if you can't even tell a car is there at all! I'm sure this will have absolutely no downsides whatsoever.
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.
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.
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,
Because 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.
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.
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.
It might work at night when flashes and such are used, it won't do anything during the day. It would also require frequent reapplication.
You'd be better off using a sbc to design a tracking system that can identify flock camera lenses and blast them with a green laser pointer, a laser pointer which of course isn't in any way driven beyond design parameters because that would be illegal.
Anything that can reliably hold a laser on a small camera lens when mounted to a moving vehicle, or even identify cameras in the first place, is Lockheed Martin-level stuff, this is crazy talk. Just mount a Trophy ADS to my Subaru real quick.
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.
This is not as effective as you would hope, the camera will just quickly auto-adjust its exposure. They work in sunlight, after all. This will only work for cameras that you drive by super fast, like on the highway.
83 replies
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.
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.
I used to live in Louisiana and I drove there for three years with an expired out of state license plate and no insurance. Finally got pulled over, told the cops I just forgot about that stuff, and got off with a $125 ticket. If I'd had a bit more melanin I'd still be in Angola prison today.
Allow me to introduce you to the magic world of pdlc, and especially pdlc in the same size as your license plates. Its not even that expensive and can be flipped from a switch as well.
https://a.aliexpress.com/_Ew79cNM
Now we need a program that automaticaly turns it on when by a camera.
Tie it to the map deflock runs?
Or just https://www.vortexradar.com/2016/03/nophoto-review/
Couldn't you make it automatic and do it. Don't get have devices that detect all the wireless crap going on in a police car? For educational purposes only of course
They're gonna start making rfid license plates, aren't they
https://youtu.be/HGzBL4k6qeY
You would need a mix of IR absorbing material and IR reflective material like what they use in Zenni ID guard glasses.
An easier way to go about it would just be to install a bright IR light pointed at your plate, it would create a glare that would make it impossible for the camera to read.
I have an IR scope for one of my rifles and thought it would be a bright idea to install a IR flashlight to help boost the field of vision....... The flashlight I got was so bright that it just tuned the whole image white.
So there are things that would work, but it would probably get you in more trouble than anything. It's illegal in every state to attempt to obscure your tags from being tracked in any way.
This is my right. It'd be pretty simple to install a small ring of IR LED around your plate and wire them into the car lights and a back up battery in the trunk. Basically keep it glowing 24/7. Probably like, 30 bucks in hardware from Ali to start from scratch.
Kind of wonder what it'd be like to frame he whole car in it. Like a ghostly kia soul.
Might be a way to get around the intentional blocking of your plate. If you installed a bright enough IR light bar on the roof of your car pointing down the front and back.... You would probably just show up as a moving block of light, might not even be recognized as a car by the AI.
I’m willing to bet if it did do something useful, you would just make yourself a target for frequent stops by cops.
Yes. You also need a ring of high intensity white LEDs pointed at your plate.
And the flocks are IR cameras, so better would be broadcasting a ton of IR light around your license plate. That being said, the camera also looks for type/size of rims and tires, window tint, visible damage, bumper stickers, dirt level, so while your license plate blocking may stop it from looking you up it won't stop it from tracking where you're going
I just cover my entire car with flexible screens and cameras. The image from one side of the car is displayed on the images of the other side of the car. Can't track a car if you can't even tell a car is there at all! I'm sure this will have absolutely no downsides whatsoever.
If you want to beat camera that flash, set up a camera flash in slave mode pointing at your plate. It will overexpose it
They did, but I always took it with the notion that if they did find something that worked it would never be allowed to air.
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...
Wrong!
This one can!
I did specify "should"! Hypothetically, cutting it down would be:
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"
“There was a whole flock of them!”
You're already hit with an extra charge for firing within city limits
This is why populism works against us. We are always trying to high-road everything.
I meant like, a gun is not the best tool for the job. In theory...
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 ...
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.
Jokes on them, that's not my car at all
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,
"it's that car that's 20 cars again"
https://github.com/JiaoXianjun/BTLE
https://github.com/migraine-sudo/BTLE-R
Because 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.
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".
Could still filter it down by addresses that show up at multiple places.
What about a Faraday wrap for your car? I think we need those.
Like, what Russia is doing?
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.
Only criminals would bicycle
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?
Sure, go ahead
It might work at night when flashes and such are used, it won't do anything during the day. It would also require frequent reapplication.
You'd be better off using a sbc to design a tracking system that can identify flock camera lenses and blast them with a green laser pointer, a laser pointer which of course isn't in any way driven beyond design parameters because that would be illegal.
Anything that can reliably hold a laser on a small camera lens when mounted to a moving vehicle, or even identify cameras in the first place, is Lockheed Martin-level stuff, this is crazy talk. Just mount a Trophy ADS to my Subaru real quick.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/accessories/ai-camera.html
At 12.3MP and 4056×3040 resolution it should do fine for under 100 dollars.
People are also making devices to fire a laser to shoot mosquitoes out of the air.
Lockheed Martin indeed. 🙄
It only has to hit it once, before your plate is captured, the sensors stay overloaded for a few seconds.
Would UV laser also work?
Probably, but it might be visible to other cameras.
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.
Technically you can install infrared LEDs to shine on your license plate to wash out the license plate
This is not as effective as you would hope, the camera will just quickly auto-adjust its exposure. They work in sunlight, after all. This will only work for cameras that you drive by super fast, like on the highway.
I guess another option is to do an ir led strobe light and cause the exposure to fluctuate.
Lemon juice bank robbery
Don’t forget about adversarial networks to just make the camera think you don’t exist at all.
https://youtu.be/Pp9MwZkHiMQ