File:Wikimania 2023 - IP Masking.pdf

Speaker: Niharika Kohli (WMF), Madi Moss (WMF)
Abstract: Wikimedia projects can be edited with or without a user account. Currently, editing without an account means your edits will be publicly attributed to your IP address. IP addresses carry [personal information](https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Privacy_policy#definitions) and can present a privacy concern for our unregistered editors. The Wikimedia Foundation is leading an initiative to mask the IP addresses of editors across Wikimedia projects in a program we call IP Masking. In this session, we will go over the work that has happened so far and detail our plans going forward.

IP Masking is aimed at improving our users’ privacy and ensuring that they can contribute to our projects effectively and safely. At the same time, we want to address legal risk around publishing and storing these IP addresses indefinitely.

The biggest changes coming are: 1. IP addresses of unregistered editors will no longer be public; access will be restricted to editors who need to see them to fight spam, vandalism, harassment and disinformation 2. Unregistered editors will be assigned a temporary account with an auto-generated username which will be treated differently than registered users

This is a huge change, not just because of the amount of work but also because of the impact it will have on our patroller workflows.

Our objectives for this session are to:

• Recap previous phases of this work, including an overview of the IP Info tool
• Discuss the proposed MVP features for IP Masking, with a particular focus on what changes users can expect and when to expect them
• Provide an open space for feedback, questions and discussion

Note: This proposal is also relevant to the "Technology" track in addition to "Legal, Advocacy and Risks"
Presented at: Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre, 2023-08-17 08:00 to 08:30 UTC