Hello Mapillary-Community,
I have a question regarding access to the uncensored, raw images from Mapillary.
I understand that this goes against the idea of anonymized, open-source data, however this is in regards to a missing Person case.
There is a Photo-Track from the same day and same region the person disappeared from which show cars that fit the description given by witnesses.
Finding the license plate numbers could be a breakthrough in this case, that did not have any significant developments for over a year. Part of the License plate is known, so it would be quite easy to determine wether or not the car is a potential match.
Is there a possibility to get the uncensored data, or is the raw file deleted after the plates are blurred?
Is there a possibility to contact mapillary users directly to get the files from them?
Would the Police or Prosecutor have a better chance of getting the images?
Are there other ways of getting the unblurred images?
Does Mapillary cooperate with law enforcement in such cases?
I am new to mapillary and this forum so please excuse if this question has been asked before, or if there are other factors that I have missed.
Thank you for any help or hints.
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I assume the best way is to contact support to get definite answers. I’m just some random user, so this is just what I know and it could all be wrong (although then it would become a serious ethical issue so it’s probably true enough).
Mapillary does not store unblurred photos. After a short grace period, the original is deleted. You can never get it back from Mapillary.
Here’s a relevant–if old–reply: Anonymize (blurring faces and license plates) before upload - #10 by eneerhut
You can see who took the photo but actually having profile information, like contact information, is up to the person. It’s unlikely you can directly contact most people. And, from experience, no one is likely to keep too many old photos/videos around - they take up literal terabytes of space. I would be very surprised if anyone has photos from a year ago.
I keep all my original BlackVue mp4’s back to late 2018. I think around 10TBytes on 4 (magnetic) USB drives. Storage is relatively cheap. I get the impression though that the phone based app does not keep copies for any length of time. (I use mapillary_tools)
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Sorry to hear about this missing persons case.
The answer from @HellPhoto is correct. We do not store unblurred originals and delete them as soon as the original has been blurred.