Some states, like Michigan, you can request owner information (including address) by a in-person SOS visit and $15 a plate. I've always thought this should be PII and shouldn't be allowed on reddit, for example, where PII is banned. Post a driver with plate in Michigan and you may have doxxed them.

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747fulloftapes 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This is intentionally not PII. You accept this burden when you decide to register a vehicle.

Keep in mind you don't need to have a license plate or to register a vehicle to drive it only on private property.

Your license plate is required to be readily visible so that it can be used to find out who the registered and, presumably, responsible party is.

Consider if you skip out on paying for parking at a garage, where you agreed to pay the fee by parking there in the first place. How is the business supposed to identify you to collect the money owed?

Otherwise, how else would automatic private toll roads know where to send the bill?

In Michigan, I believe the law only permits someone to request registration details for certain listed reasons. They don't verify that, but if you're caught submitting a fraudulent request, you can get in trouble - I don't know if it's a fine or crime. Probably depends on the circumstance.

PS Hello from Grand Rapids!

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antonvs 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Some states, like Michigan, you can request owner information (including address)

If the car is leased, wouldn’t this just give leasing company details?

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747fulloftapes 6 hours ago | parent [-]

No, because while the leasing company may own the vehicle (known as the title holder) the vehicle will be registered in the lesser's name (known as the registered owner.)

In the case of a car purchased with financing like a loan, I believe the purchaser will be both the title and registered owner, but the lender will have a lien on the vehicle until the debt is paid off.

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antonvs 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Ah thanks.

Permanent rental it is then. :)

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747fulloftapes 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That, or, establish a trust to own the vehicle and grant yourself permission to use it. It's not exactly trivial to do and costs some money, but it's doable.

You can do similar with an LLC, but that gets more complicated with the rules regarding using a "company" vehicle for personal purposes. IANAL

Similar things are done for things like cellphone plans, firearm ownership, homes, etc.

The only thing I am aware of that you can only do in your own name is register to vote. Almost all of the Michigan voter database can be FOIA'd. It's called the QVF - qualified voter file. Only a few fields in the database (ie, day and month of birth) as well as all voter records for victoms domestic battery are protected by statute.

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kotaKat 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Pay a thousand bucks to a Montana agent to register you an pseudoanonymous LLC and put an old 90s Corolla into an LLC with a permanent registration plate (since anything 15+ years old can have a 'perm' plate on it.

Then never think about it again.

	▲	747fulloftapes 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		While some people do get away with this, it carries some risk. Without using an LLC, most every state requires you to register your vehicle where you live within 30-90 days with some exceptions (ie college students). Even with the LLC, if you catch the attention of the state, I believe you might be risking being charged with tax evasion even if your goal was to protect your privacy. This is especially true if you can't prove the LLC to be a legitimate business venture. Yeah, the Corolla won't be mistaken for a supercar, but many states have begun cracking down on residents with Montana plates such as Georgia, Ohio, and New York. Also, insuring a car with out of state registration can be committing insurance fraud. Rates and fees are different between states due to different regulations. Further, depending on your policy, the insurer could deny claims because the car wasn't garaged in the state it was registered. Really, if the privacy is of sufficient priority, the best solution is to just do things properly and move to rural Montana instead.