Trust and Safety Product/Temporary Accounts/FAQ/yo
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The basics
What is a temporary account?
Any time you publish an edit on Wikipedia or other sites hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation without logging into a registered account, a temporary account will be created for you. This account will automatically be given a username. A cookie will be set in your browser when the account is created. This username will be used to attribute all subsequent edits by you, even if your IP address changes.
With a temporary account, your IP address can only be accessed by authorized staff and community members, as outlined in the updated Privacy policy.
See also:
- Help page for the temporary account holders (temporary users)
- The technical information page if your bot or tool needs to differentiate between temporary and permanent account types
Why does everyone need to have a username?
The license used on the Wikimedia wikis requires each edit to be attributed to a user identifier.
People who create a free registered account can choose their own usernames. People who do not use a registered account are automatically assigned a temporary account. Previously, your edits would be publicly attributed to your IP address, such as User:192.0.2.1.
What does a temporary username look like?
Example of temporary user name:
~2024-1234567
The automatically generated usernames for temporary accounts begin with a tilde (~) and the year when the first edit was made by that account.
The year is followed by numbers.
Users cannot register normal accounts with usernames that match this pattern.
Users cannot choose a temporary account name. Their account name is auto-generated.
Why are you working on temporary accounts at all?
Wikimedians began discussing the exposure of IP addresses as a privacy issue shortly after MediaWiki was developed. For example, there is a thread dating back to 2004. For many years, there was no strong incentive to change this, so the Wikimedia Foundation wasn't working on it. But in the meantime, in many countries, new laws and new standards were introduced. Finally, in 2018, the Foundation's Legal department determined that the indefinite public storage of IP addresses presents serious risks. This includes legal risks to the projects and risks to the users. Today, this project is one of the priorities of the Foundation's leadership.
See also:
- Project update from July 2021 with more details about the Legal team's assessment
Why a temporary account is the right solution to the problem?
There are some hard requirements that led to the design of the temporary accounts. Some of them are of legal, and some are of technical nature:
| What we are facing | What we have decided to do |
|---|---|
| One of the founding principles of our movement is that people should be able to make most simple edits without registering a permanent account. | Temporary accounts will be created automatically (people won't need to create an account themselves). |
| Due to legal requirements, edits on the wikis should be attributed to a user identifier other than IP address. | If temporary accounts are enabled on a wiki, an account is created for a user as soon as they commit their first edit. The user is automatically logged in to this account, which is tied to a randomly generated username. This username is displayed in every situation (except for various functionary tools) where IP addresses would have otherwise been displayed. |
| The identifier that a given not logged-in user's edits are attributed to needs to be stable. Creating a new user for each edit is not an option. Otherwise, there would be a too large rate of new users. | As soon as the temporary account is created, the user is logged in. The cookie has a limited lifetime. Within this duration, if the user decides to make more edits, they are all attributed to the same temporary account. A new one is created if the user decides to log out of the temporary account or otherwise use a different browser. The user retains the same temporary account if they change IP address while using the same device/browser. |
| The MediaWiki software can't be changed too much. We need to limit novelties to let existing features work unmodified. | A temporary account does not break anything in the way user accounts are handled. Aside from some special case behaviors that are required (such as some features that need to be disabled for temporary accounts), most code is likely to work without unexpected failures. |
See also:
Is the Wikimedia Foundation monitoring the effect of using temporary accounts on our communities?
Yes.
There is a public dashboard for monitoring metrics for the pilot wikis. All these statistics are updated very frequently, for instance, real-time or once every day, to give everyone a good visibility of the actual work of temporary accounts on wikis.
Specifically, the above metrics are publicly available:
Public metrics in detail
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In addition, the Foundation is monitoring some other metrics which for security or privacy reasons are not public.
These include data like the number of requests for assistance from CheckUsers. We will periodically share reports about the non-public metrics.
Parts of this page (those related to this section) are outdated. |
Guardrail metrics in detail
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IP addresses appear in the history of many pages. Will those past uses be modified?
No.
Historical IP addresses that were published on wiki before the switch to temporary accounts will not be modified. The Wikimedia Foundation Legal department has approved this decision.
Where are temporary accounts deployed? When will these changes reach my wiki?
- Temporary accounts are already available on pilot wikis: Czech Wikiversity, Igbo Wikipedia, Italian Wikiquote, Swahili Wikipedia, and Serbo-Croatian Wikipedia.
- If the first deployments are successful and we don't have a ton of unexpected work, then in February 2025, we will roll out on larger wikis. We call this major pilot deployment. It may include some top10 wikis, but not English Wikipedia.
- Next, in May 2025, we will deploy on all remaining wikis in one carefully coordinated step.
We encourage bot operators and tool developers to test their tools as early as possible.
Legal details about temporary accounts
What specific legal requirements, regulations or risks are you worried about? Is the Foundation facing legal action? What would happen if we didn't introduce temporary accounts?
We shouldn't provide all the information. We shouldn't publish some details, and we shouldn't disclose why. If we publicly discussed what arguments we can make, or what risks are most likely to result in litigation, we could help someone harm the wikis and the communities.
This answer is based on attorney advice we are choosing to follow.
Can this change be rolled out differently by location?
No.
We protect the privacy of all users to the same standard. This will change across the Wikimedia projects.
If we tell someone their IP address will be published, isn't that enough?
No.
Many people have been confused to see their IP address published. Additionally, even when someone does see the notice, the Foundation has to properly handle their personal data. Publishing the IP addresses of non-logged-in editors falls short of current privacy best practices. Also, it creates risks, including risks to those users.
How will the project affect CC license attribution?
It will not affect it.
The 3.0 license for text on the Wikimedia projects already states that attribution should include "the name of the Original Author (or pseudonym, if applicable)" (see the license at section 4c). Use of the temporary account names will function equally well as a pseudonym. IP addresses already may vary or be assigned to different people over time, so using that as a proxy for un-registered editors is not different from an the temporary account names. Both satisfy the license pseudonym requirement. In addition, our Terms of use section 7 specify that as part of contributing to Wikipedia, editors agree that links to articles (which include article history) are a sufficient method of attribution.
Single wiki community questions
What if a community wants to keep using IP addresses?
After temporary accounts become available, displaying IP addresses for subsequent contributions will no longer be permitted. All communities need to prepare for the change to temporary accounts.
Would disallowing or limiting anonymous editing be a good alternative?
Unlikely.
In the past, the Wikimedia Foundation has supported research into requiring registration for all editors editing Wikipedia articles. The results have been largely harmful. We've seen large drops in the net non-reverted content edits over time in Farsi Wikipedia.
At this time, with the data we have, we cannot say that disabling logged-out editing on any project is a beneficial solution.
Technical details about temporary accounts
Where can I test it?
- All beta cluster wikis except en-rtl Wikipedia
- test.wikipedia.org
- test2.wikipedia.org
Keep in mind that these are testing wikis. Software there may not work as expected.
How long does a temporary account last?
A temporary account will work for as long as the cookie exists. The cookie is currently set to expire three months after the first edit.
The following are the most common scenarios in which a temporary account will be irretrievably lost:
- The user clears the cookies on the browser.
- The user deletes the profile on their browser that they used when the temporary account was created.
- The user used an incognito (private browsing) window, and closed the window.
- The cookie expired.
If a temporary account is lost, then a new temporary account, with a new username, will be automatically generated the next time the user publishes an edit. If a user would like a permanent account, they can create a free registered account at any time.
Will temp accounts change if IP address changes?
No.
Just as with registered accounts, the account doesn't change when IP addresses do.
Will the temporary username be unique across different wikis?
Yes.
If you see User:~2024-1234567 at multiple SUL-connected wikis, you can be confident that this is the same account.
What if temporary accounts are only enabled on some wikis?
There will be time when some wikis will have temporary accounts enabled (pilots) and others will not.
Wikis that have temporary accounts enabled will display unregistered editors as temporary accounts. On non-temp-accounts wikis they will still show up as IP addresses. When the temporary user switches between these wikis they will show up as a temporary account in one wiki and as an IP address in another.
This may create a problem with some features that rely on having a persistent user identity across wikis. If your feature(s) are impacted by this change, please come talk to us on the talk page or through Phabricator.
Access to IP addresses
Who is able to see the IP address of temporary accounts?
Stewards, CheckUsers, global sysops, admins, and patrollers who meet qualifying thresholds, as well as certain staff at the Wikimedia Foundation.
There are privacy risks associated with IP addresses. This is why they will be visible only to people who need to have that information for effective patrolling.
See also:
- Access to temporary account IP addresses legal policy
I have a qualified account. How can I see the IP addresses?
Go to Special:Preferences and opt in.
Will I need to sign any non-disclosure agreement?
No.
There is the access to nonpublic personal data policy (ANPDP). It is a legal policy from the Wikimedia Foundation about how checkusers and people with certain other roles must protect non-public personal data that they obtain in the course of their duties. Volunteer admins and patrollers do not need to sign it. However, you will need to opt-in to access to IP addresses through Special:Preferences at your local wiki.
Bawo ni awọn olootu yoo ṣe waye fun olumulo tuntun yii ni ẹtọ?
Nipa aiyipada, eyi yoo jẹ sọtọ laifọwọyi si awọn olumulo ti o yẹ. Ohun kan ṣoṣo ti o nilo lati ṣe ni lati jade nigbati o ba wa ni wiki rẹ.
Sibẹsibẹ, wiki kọọkan le ṣeto ilana tirẹ pẹlu awọn iṣedede ti o ga ju ti o kere ju, gẹgẹbi ilana ti o nilo atunyẹwo ẹni kọọkan. Wikimedia Foundation ko nilo ilana ti o ṣe deede lati di alabojuto ni agbegbe ti o tobi julọ. Awọn agbegbe le yan lati mu awọn ibeere wọnyi mu nipasẹ awọn ilana ti o wa tẹlẹ, tabi lati ṣeto awọn oju-iwe tuntun. Fun apẹẹrẹ, Wikipedia le yan lati gba awọn ibeere ni w:en:Wikipedia:Requests for permissions, ati Wikipedia-ede German le yan lati mu awọn ibeere ni w:de:Wikipedia:Administratoren/Anfragen, ati Wikipedia ti Yukirenia le yan lati mu awọn ibeere ni w:uk:Вікіпедія:Заявки на права патрульного. Awọn agbegbe kekere pupọ nigbagbogbo gba iru awọn ibeere lori fifa abule wọn.
Agbegbe mi fẹ lati ṣeto awọn ibeere ti o ga julọ. Báwo la ṣe lè ṣe bẹ́ẹ̀?
Tẹle awọn itọnisọna ni Wiwọle si awọn adiresi IP akọọlẹ igba diẹ#Awọn ibeere agbegbe. Ni ọpọlọpọ igba, eyi yoo tumọ si nini ijiroro ni agbegbe agbegbe, ṣiṣe akọsilẹ ipinnu agbegbe, ati tẹle ilana fun Bibere awọn iyipada iṣeto wiki.
Nigbawo ni ẹtọ olumulo yoo wa? Nigbawo ni a le bẹrẹ fifun rẹ?
Ẹtọ olumulo yoo ṣee ṣe afikun si sọfitiwia MediaWiki nigbamii ni ọdun yii (2023), botilẹjẹpe kii yoo wulo lakoko ni gbogbo awọn wiki. Ti wọn ba fẹ, awọn agbegbe ti o fẹ lati lo ilana ti o nilo atunyẹwo olukuluku le bẹrẹ awọn olootu ti o ti gba tẹlẹ ni eyikeyi akoko.
Wiki mi ni ẹgbẹ to wa ti awọn ẹtọ olumulo ti ga tẹlẹ ju awọn ibeere to kere ju lọ. Gbogbo wọn yoo gba ẹtọ yii laifọwọyi ti a ko ba yan lati ni ilana lọtọ. Njẹ a le fi ẹtọ tuntun yii fun gbogbo wọn bi?
Wiki mi ni ẹgbẹ to wa ti awọn ẹtọ olumulo ti ga tẹlẹ ju awọn ibeere to kere ju lọ. Gbogbo wọn yoo gba ẹtọ yii laifọwọyi ti a ko ba yan lati ni ilana lọtọ. Njẹ a le fi ẹtọ tuntun yii fun gbogbo wọn bi?
Awọn ibeere to kere julọ fun awọn ti kii ṣe alabojuto ga ju
Eyi le jẹ otitọ lẹẹkọọkan, gẹgẹ bi igba ti wiki kan ti ṣẹda tuntun. Ni iru awọn iṣẹlẹ bẹẹ, ẹnikan ni wiki yẹn nilo lati beere iyasọtọ lati Ẹka Ofin Wikimedia Foundation. Kan si privacy
wikimedia.org pẹlu alaye ipo ni agbegbe rẹ.
Mo pade awọn ibeere to kere julọ fun iraye si aifọwọyi, ṣugbọn agbegbe mi nilo atunyẹwo kọọkan, wọn si kọ ibeere mi!
Boya lati fun olumulo ni ẹtọ si ẹnikan ti o pade ibeere ti o kere julọ jẹ patapata si agbegbe agbegbe. Ko si ẹnikan ti o nilo lati fun ọ ni ẹtọ olumulo yii.
Mo jẹ alabojuto, ṣugbọn Emi ko fẹ olumulo yii ni ẹtọ
Iwọ kii yoo ni anfani lati wo eyikeyi alaye yii ayafi ti o ba tẹ lati gba adehun naa.
Mo gbagbọ pe ẹnikan n ṣi alaye yii lo
Jọwọ jabo awọn ifiyesi ti o jọmọ asiri si igbimọ ombuds. Lati rii daju iṣiro, awọn igbasilẹ ti wa ni ipamọ ti lilo ọpa ati eyiti awọn olumulo ni iwọle si ọpa naa.
Awọn ifiyesi miiran nipa ilokulo ti o pọju ni a le mu wa fun iriju kan nipa gbigbe ibeere kan sori iriju. Awọn iriju ni a fun ni aṣẹ lati dènà iraye si olumulo si awọn adirẹsi IP ti wọn ba pinnu pe ilokulo waye. Eyi yoo ṣe idiwọ iraye si paapaa ti olumulo yoo ni ẹtọ laifọwọyi tabi ti ni iraye si nipasẹ ilana agbegbe kan.
Some communities currently have public pages for documenting the activities of some bad actors, including their IP addresses (e.g., Long-term abuse). Will this documentation still be permitted?
Yes.
The communities should treat the IPs of logged in users and temporary account holders the same on the Long-term abuse list. They may list the IP addresses when necessary, but they should refer to the abusers by their temporary account usernames.
See also:
Can we publicly document the IP addresses used by suspected (but not confirmed) bad actors who are using temporary accounts?
In general, no, but sometimes yes, temporarily.
When possible, patrollers with access to IP addresses should document the temporary account name(s) instead of the IP addresses. The exception is when the IP addresses are necessary for the purpose of protecting the wiki from abusive actions. Necessity should be determined on a case-by-case basis. If a disclosure later becomes unnecessary, then the IP address should be promptly removed.
For example, if a suspected vandal is exonerated during an investigation, then the report showing the user's IP address can be removed through oversight. That way, the IP address is only revealed while it is needed, and then is suppressed later, after it has been shown to not be needed any longer. See the related policy for more information.
If other information about non-logged-in contributors is revealed (such as location, or ISP), then it doesn't matter if the IP address is also published, right?
No. The IP address should not be published.
With temporary accounts, the public information will be not linked to an individual person or device. For example, it will be a city-level location, or a note that an edit was made by someone at a particular university. While this is still information about the user, it's less specific and individual than an IP address. So even though we are making some information available in order to assist with abuse prevention, we are protecting the privacy of that specific contributor better.
Experienced contributor questions
What if a temporary account holder needs to be blocked?
Temporary accounts' IPs will be stored for a period of 90 days. Their IP addresses can still be blocked, just like at present. Temporary accounts can also be independently blocked, including global blocks and autoblocks.
Can't an abuser just clear cookies?
Yes, they can. Temporary accounts are not intended to solve any anti-abuse problems.
We know the problem of abusers making edits through a pool of changing IPs while masking browser agent data. This cannot be solved through temporary accounts. This is not a design goal for this project either. Otherwise, we would need to use trusted tokens, disabling anonymous edits, or fingerprinting, all of which are very involved, complicated measures that have significant community and technical considerations.
Tools will be adapted to ensure that bidirectional mappings between temporary accounts within the last 90 days and IPs can be safely and efficiently navigated by trusted functionaries. However, abuse from a user that clears cookies may become difficult or impossible to detect and mitigate for users without elevated user rights, or if some of the edits involved are more than 90 days old.
Will temporary accounts be covered by the autoblock mechanism?
Autoblocks stop vandals and other high-risk users from continuing to disrupt the projects by immediately creating a new account. Autoblocks for temporary accounts are the same as autoblocks for registered users. (IP addresses are not available to the public.)
More information is available in phab:T332231. Temporary accounts can also be blocked via global autoblocks.
Is there a limitation for creating many temporary accounts from the same IP address?
Yes.
There is a limitation preventing from creating too many accounts from the same IP address too quickly.
The current threshold for regular accounts is six per IP address per day ($wgAccountCreationThrottle).
In addition to tht, there is a similar limitation for temporary accounts, which is also six per IP address per day ($wgRateLimits).
This threshold can be changed quickly if necessary.
We have investigated the ideal thresholds of the limit (T357771). We will check nuanced responses to tripping thresholds, including CAPTCHAs, temporary blocks, calls to create an account, etc.
During the entire rollout, we will analyse rate limit trips (T357763). To learn more, see T357776.
What are the functional differences between using a Special:Checkuser on a temporary account, and revealing the IP address?
The IP reveal feature can show you the IP address used for a particular edit by a particular temporary account, the last IP address used by a temporary account, all the IP addresses used by a temporary account, or all the temporary accounts edits on a given IP address or IP address range.
See also
- Policy:Access to temporary account IP addresses – Legal policy