
SFMTA publishes list of names with license plates - axoltl
https://www.sfmta.com/services/permits-citations/citation-overpayments
======
650REDHAIR
Wow. Didn't think it could be real, but sure enough my girlfriend's old plate
is listed. That's pretty disgusting, SFMTA.

 __Edit __

We just went through the process to claim the $125 through "surveygizmo.com".
At the end it says "A customer service representative will review your
information and respond to you within 21 days. If a refund is identified a
check will be processed within 30 days"

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templaedhel
I wonder if anything interesting comes up if you correlate this data with the
license plate camera data that Oakland released
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10642139](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10642139)).

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heezo
Thanks for this. I scraped all of the PDF data, and threw it in a DB. Now it's
searchable.

[http://sfmtarefund.com](http://sfmtarefund.com)

~~~
anpk
Is there a way to search by name?

~~~
heezo
Unfortunately, no. There was no rhyme or reason to the way that they formatted
the names. I guess I could implement a fuzzy search, but I'm still at work.

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bound008
This data can't be real. It says Steve Jobs has not one, but three license
plates.

~~~
JimboOmega
Wasn't he known for buying new cars all the time to get around parking fines
(by milking the new car plates)?

~~~
Kadin
It's reported that he leased a new Mercedes every 6 months so that he didn't
have to put plates on the car at all.

[http://gizmodo.com/5853927/the-real-reason-steve-jobs-
benz-d...](http://gizmodo.com/5853927/the-real-reason-steve-jobs-benz-didnt-
have-a-license-plate)

I don't know if there was anything about parking fines involved; I doubt the
guy was particularly concerned about them.

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mmanfrin
SFMTA is a truly awful organization.

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abalone
Details on California DMV records.. surprisingly, a lot of the data is
technically public record:

[https://www.privacyrights.org/cradle-grave-government-
record...](https://www.privacyrights.org/cradle-grave-government-records-and-
your-privacy)

And here's the federal law on DMV record privacy. This would be a legal
release of information, unfortunately (government agency "carrying out its
functions"):

[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2721](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2721)

------
freedenizen
Appears to be illegal under DPPA
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver%27s_Privacy_Protection_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver%27s_Privacy_Protection_Act)

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dmitrygr
That seems like an oversight....

~~~
bigiain
Seems plausible - they accidentally created 9 PDF files, accidentally uploaded
them to a new page in their CMS which they accidentally created, on which they
accidentally wrote instructions on how to search through the PDF file to find
your (or your ex-wife/stalkee's) name/plate.

No clear signs of intent that publishing names linked to plates was exactly
what they set out to do...

~~~
jrockway
Well, it's obvious their intent was that you could find whether or not you
were owed money by searching for your license plate or name. You weren't
supposed to search for someone else's licence plate or name.

Of course someone should have noticed that you can do that, and that it's bad
for privacy, but didn't. That's the problem.

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vlall
they'll for sure take this down.

~~~
justinclift
Bit late now. ;)

