I forgot about this, but at the same time that doesn't imply it's legal for a government agency to just give it away. There are obviously industries that gather up all your personal information from address and DoB to SSN but that doesn't mean a government agency can just give it out to a random nobody.

The difference in rational is pretty simple: A plate identifies a vehicle. A vehicle is not a person. Govt can't give out personally identifiable information.

But a plate identifies a vehicle _and_ its owner—not just a vehicle.

A vehicle’s owner is public information in the US. Credit Karma knows the vehicles I own based on DMV records, and recommends me insurance accordingly.

And they know that because your PII (name, address, social) is mapped to a profile, and that profile is also mapped to license plates and Vins. So you can use one to look up the other info in either direction.

Addresses can be used that way to, but an address as a stand alone data item is used for every public land record in existence.

Think of a license plate as an 'address' for a car.