Hi all,
If you are actively using IP addresses of not-logged-in editors of the
Wikimedia projects for your research or intend to do so in the future,
please read on. Otherwise, you can stop here.
As you know, IP addresses can provide a wealth of information about
not-logged-in editors, including sensitive information such as their
location and organization. This can pose a privacy risk to these editors.
To mitigate this, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) is currently working on a
project to mask IP addresses and limit their exposure and storage on our
platform.
The IP masking project can have an impact on your work. Given that the
Research team represents the needs of the Wikimedia research community in
the Wikimedia Foundation, we are reaching out to you to notify you of the
upcoming changes. We do this in coordination with the team responsible for
IP masking.
The change: When WMF launches the IP masking, future edits from
not-logged-in users (sometimes referred to as unregistered users) will no
longer be attributed to their IP addresses. Instead, they will be assigned
auto generated temporary usernames that will be tied to a cookie on their
browsers. As long as the cookie persists, the edits will be attributed to
that user. After a certain period of time (tentatively one year), the
cookie will automatically expire. Users who need access to IP addresses to
protect Wikimedia projects from vandalism or other abuse will be able to do
so on a limited basis and for a limited period of time.
No change. IP addresses of not-logged-in users in the historical data will
remain unchanged. The IP masking rollout will affect future edits (relative
to the time of rollout) only.
Timelines: The projected timeline for early pilot (in 1-2 wikimedia
projects) rollout is between October-December 2023. The team doesn’t yet
have a projected timeline for a complete rollout of this change to all
Wikimedia projects.
What we have considered to offer instead. We understand the importance of
IP addresses for research purposes. To that end:
-
The Research <https://research.wikimedia.org/team.html> and Security
<https://security.wikimedia.org/> teams did an initial exploration of
whether we can offer one or more alternative datasets that can support
existing research that utilizes IP addresses. We concluded that we will not
be able to offer country level data –the most common use-case of IP
addresses to the best of our knowledge – at the revision level at this
point in time.
-
The Research team will consider exploring the option to offer a
user-group level access to researchers who need to have access to this
data. The priority of this work will depend on other priorities of the
Research team as well as an impact assessment based on what we hear from
the researchers who currently work with this data. (See the next paragraph.
)
Impact on your research: If this change creates a significant burden on you
or your research, we want to hear from you by April 30, 2023. You can
communicate this impact by leaving a comment in
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T332034. If there is an impact that you
cannot communicate publicly, please write an email to Niharika Kohli <
nkohli(a)wikimedia.org> (IP Masking, Product Manager, also in CC) & myself <
lzia(a)wikimedia.org> (Head of Research). We commit to reviewing all comments
we receive by the deadline, and we commit to exploring ways to support you
to reduce the impact on you and your work. We also ask for your
understanding. If this data is not essential for your work, please consider
using the many other data sources that we make publicly available,
including but not limited to those listed in
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Data.
Sharing your expertise. If you have conducted research or are aware of
research that the team should take into account as WMF moves forward with
IP masking, please share that with the team on the project’s talk page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:IP_Editing:_Privacy_Enhancement_and_Abuse_Mitigation>
.
Stay updated. You can stay updated about this project through the project’s
dedicated page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IP_Editing:_Privacy_Enhancement_and_Abuse_Mitigation>
.
Please consider this email as a one-time courtesy notification. We may not
send reminders. As a result, if your work may be affected, please take a
note of this email and reach out to us by the deadline. :)
Thanks,
Leila
--
Leila Zia
Head of Research
Wikimedia Foundation