Although I can't speak for the Research Committee, I agree with Pradeep that
this is unlikely to violate any users privacy.
ASN cover very broad areas, significantly broader areas than you can gain
with the first three octets of an IP address. So they should reveal less
information than 125.237.89.xxx would reveal. Plainly put, they reveal a
user's ISP and maybe general region, but that is it.
Hope this explanation helps you with your efforts to convince the Research
Committee Pradeep.
Thank you,
Derric Atzrott
-----Original Message-----
From: wikitech-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikitech-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of MZMcBride
Sent: 14 June 2012 22:32
To: Wikimedia developers
Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] Request for data from Wikimedia Foundation for
academic research
Pradeep Bangera wrote:
I am a PhD student from Institute IMDEA Networks,
Spain. I very much
appreciate the data that you have published in Wikimedia Report Card.
I am writing this email as a kind request for a possible cooperation
for assisting me in my research work by sharing your data without
violating anyone's privacy.
I have a task of developing a list of Internet Service Providers
(ISPs) around the globe for 2012. One way of doing it is by mapping
the IP addresses of the internet users who visit your websites to
their corresponding Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) of the ISPs. For
this I need to have IP address dataset logged by your web server in
2012 and certainly I do not seek it (IPs) being well aware of the
privacy concerns of any website companies. So instead of the IP
addresses, if you can cooperate in running a simple bash script (which
I will send if you agree) on my behalf which will map the IP address
(2012 recorded) from your database to its corresponding ASN and
handover the ASNs dataset to me, I will be thankful and greatly
appreciate for your time and cooperation.
Hi Pradeep,
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Index was designed for this
purpose. "The Wikimedia Research Index is the main research hub for wiki
researchers and the Wikimedia community. It's run by the Wikimedia Research
Committee and collaboratively maintained by its participants."
You should consult the Research Committee about the type of data you're
after and whether it's possible to obtain it given Wikimedia's privacy
policy and other considerations.
MZMcBride
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