Terms of use

1. These terms

PlateVista is a community gallery of vehicle photos taken in public, on and from public roads. Browsing and searching need no account. Creating an account or submitting a photo means you accept these terms; each submission records which version you accepted. The privacy policy explains how data is handled.

2. Your account

• One account per person. Keep your sign-in details to yourself.
• You can delete any photo you submitted, published or not, and your account, at any time from your account page.
• An account that breaks these terms may be suspended or deleted, for example one that submits photos meant to track or expose people.

3. What you may submit

A submission has one to three photos of the same vehicle, for example the rear with its plate, the front and a side. The plate does not have to show in every photo. A photo may be published only if all of these are true:

• It was taken in public, on or from a public road, of a vehicle in plain view. No private or hidden photos.
• You took it, or you have the right to share it and to give the license below.
• It shows a vehicle, and the plate you file it under is the plate on that vehicle.
• No one can be recognized in it: no faces, and no one identifiable in or by the vehicle.
• It shows no personal information: no homes or addresses, no documents, no other identifying details.
• The details and caption are about the vehicle. They never say where or when the photo was taken, and never say anything about the owner or the driver.
• It is not illegal, hateful, sexual, violent or misleading.

4. What you may not do

• Collect data from PlateVista in bulk, by script or otherwise.
• Get around the bot check, the limits on submissions or any other protection.

5. Your photos and the license you give

You keep the rights you have in your photo. By submitting it, you give PlateVista a non-exclusive, royalty-free permission to store it, make the published copies (resized and re-encoded, without any embedded data), and show it on PlateVista with the details you entered, for as long as it is published. The permission ends when the photo is deleted, except for the backups and caches described in the privacy policy, which expire on their own.

Published photos never name you.

6. Moderation

A moderator reviews every photo before it is published, and may decline to publish any photo. A photo that is not published shows you the reason, one of:

• The photo does not show a vehicle clearly.
• The plate in the photo does not match the state and plate given.
• People can be recognized in the photo.
• The photo shows personal information, such as a home, an address or documents.
• The photo is too blurry, dark or small.
• The same photo was already submitted.
• We could not confirm the right to publish this photo.
• It does not meet the guidelines in the Terms of Use.

A moderator may also take down a published photo at any time, for example one that breaks these terms.

7. Comments

Members can comment on published photos under a display name they choose once. A display name must not pose as PlateVista, its moderators or another person.

A comment is about the car. It never says where or when the vehicle was seen, where it is parked or kept, or who owns or drives it. Links, email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, map coordinates, VINs and other plates are not allowed: a comment with them, or one that seems to place or time a vehicle or name its owner or driver, is refused when you post.

Every other comment is published as soon as you post it; none waits for a moderator first. Members can report a comment; a report about personal information, or two reports, takes it out of the thread until a moderator decides. Moderators may remove any comment that breaks these terms, and may stop an account from commenting.

By posting, you let PlateVista show your comment and your display name with the photo for as long as both exist. You can delete your own comments at any time. Comments go when the photo is deleted or when your account is deleted.

8. The service

PlateVista is provided as it is, and may change, pause or end. The plate drawings are illustrations of each state’s standard design, not official images.

9. Changes

When these terms change, this page shows the new version and date. Submissions made after a change are made under the version accepted with them.