ꠃꠁꠇꠤꠝꠤꠒꠤꠀ ꠚꠣꠃꠘ꠆ꠒꠦꠡꠘꠞ ꠟꠥꠇꠣꠘꠤꠞ ꠘꠤꠔꠤ
 | This policy is approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. It may not be circumvented, eroded, or ignored by Wikimedia Foundation officers or staff nor local policies of any Wikimedia project. |
Disclaimer: This summary is not a part of the Privacy Policy and is not a legal document. It is simply a handy reference for understanding the full Privacy Policy. Think of it as the user-friendly interface to our Privacy Policy.
ꠇꠣꠞꠘ ꠀꠝꠞꠣ ꠛꠤꠡ꠆ꠡꠣ ꠇꠞꠤ ꠎꠦ ꠀꠙꠘꠣꠞꠦ ꠝꠥꠇ꠆ꠔ ꠉꠤꠀꠘ ꠀꠘ꠆ꠖꠧꠟꠘꠅ ꠅꠋꠡꠉ꠆ꠞꠢꠘ ꠇꠞꠣꠞ ꠟꠣꠉꠤ ꠛꠦꠇ꠆ꠔꠤꠉꠔ ꠔꠁꠔ꠆ꠔ ꠙꠖꠣꠘ ꠇꠞꠔꠦ ꠅꠁꠔꠅ ꠘꠣꠄ ꠨ ꠀꠙꠘꠦ ꠪
- Read, edit, or use any Wikimedia Site without registering an account.
- Register for an account without providing an email address or real name.
ꠇꠣꠞꠘ ꠀꠝꠞꠣ ꠌꠣꠁ ꠎꠦ ꠃꠁꠇꠤꠝꠤꠒꠤꠀ ꠍꠣꠁꠐꠣꠁꠘ ꠇꠤꠟꠣꠘ ꠛꠦꠛꠀꠞ ꠇꠞꠣ ꠅꠄ ꠔꠣ ꠛꠥꠏꠔꠦ ꠨ ꠎꠣꠔꠦ ꠀꠝꠞꠣ ꠢꠤꠉꠥꠁꠘ ꠀꠙꠘꠣꠞ ꠟꠣꠉꠤ ꠀꠞꠅ ꠜꠣꠟꠣ ꠇꠞꠔꠦ ꠙꠣꠞꠤ ꠨ ꠀꠝꠞꠣ ꠇꠤꠍꠥ ꠔꠁꠔ꠆ꠔ ꠡꠋꠉ꠆ꠞꠅ ꠇꠞꠤ ꠎꠈꠘ ꠀꠙꠘꠦ ꠪
- Make public contributions.
- Register an account or update your user page.
- Use the Wikimedia Sites.
- Send us emails or participate in a survey or give feedback.
ꠀꠝꠞꠣ ꠅꠀꠖꠣꠇꠞꠣ ꠪
- Describing how your information may be used or shared in this Privacy Policy.
- Using reasonable measures to keep your information secure.
- Never selling your information or sharing it with third parties for marketing purposes.
- Only sharing your information in limited circumstances, such as to improve the Wikimedia Sites, to comply with the law, or to protect you and others.
- Retaining your data for the shortest possible time that is consistent with maintaining, understanding, and improving the Wikimedia Sites, and our obligations under applicable law.
ꠈꠛꠞꠖꠣꠞ ꠪
- Any content you add or any change that you make to a Wikimedia Site will be publicly and permanently available.
- If you add content or make a change to a Wikimedia Site without logging in, that content or change will be publicly and permanently attributed to the IP address used at the time rather than a username.
- Our community of volunteer editors and contributors is a self-policing body. Certain administrators of the Wikimedia Sites, who are chosen by the community, use tools that grant them limited access to nonpublic information about recent contributions so they may protect the Wikimedia Sites and enforce policies.
- This Privacy Policy does not apply to all sites and services run by the Wikimedia Foundation, such as sites or services that have their own privacy policy (like the Wikimedia Shop) or sites or services run by third parties (like third-party developer projects on Wikimedia Cloud Services).
- As part of our commitment to education and research around the world, we occasionally release public information and aggregated or non-personal information to the general public through data dumps and data sets.
- For the protection of the Wikimedia Foundation and other users, if you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, you may not use the Wikimedia Sites.
ꠙꠞꠤꠌꠄ
ꠀꠃꠇ꠆ꠇꠣ ⁕
ꠃꠁꠇꠤꠝꠤꠒꠤꠀ ꠚꠣꠃꠘ꠆ꠒꠦꠡꠘ ꠄꠉꠥ ꠅꠟꠣꠜꠎꠘꠇ ꠙ꠆ꠞꠔꠤꠡ꠆ꠑꠣꠘ ꠨ ꠎꠣ ꠡꠢꠥꠉꠤꠔꠣꠝꠥꠟꠇ ꠀꠞ ꠛꠤꠘꠣꠝꠥꠟ꠆ꠟꠦ ꠎ꠆ꠘꠣꠘꠜꠤꠔ꠆ꠔꠤꠇ ꠅꠄꠛꠍꠣꠁꠐ ꠙꠞꠤꠌꠣꠟꠘꠣ ꠇꠞꠦ ꠨ ꠎꠦꠝꠘ ꠃꠁꠇꠤꠙꠤꠒꠤꠀ ꠨ ꠃꠁꠇꠤꠝꠤꠒꠤꠀ ꠇꠝꠘ꠆ꠔꠣ ꠀꠞ ꠃꠁꠇꠤꠡꠛ꠆ꠖꠣꠁꠘ ⁕
This Policy explains how we collect, use, and share your Personal Information.
- We collect very little Personal Information about you.
- We do not rent or sell your Personal Information to third parties.
By using Wikimedia Sites, you consent to this Policy.
ꠃꠁꠇꠤꠝꠤꠒꠤꠀ ꠀꠘ꠆ꠖꠥꠟꠘ ꠄꠉꠥ ꠡꠎ ꠨ ꠇꠤꠘ꠆ꠔꠥ ꠡꠇ꠆ꠔꠤꠡꠣꠟꠤ ꠝꠥꠟꠘꠤꠔꠤꠞ ꠃꠙꠞꠦ ꠙꠔꠤꠡ꠆ꠑꠤꠔ ꠪ ꠀꠝꠞꠣ ꠄꠇꠟꠉꠦ ꠎꠣ ꠇꠞꠔꠣꠝ ꠙꠣꠞꠤ ꠨ ꠔꠣ ꠄꠇꠟꠣ ꠇꠥꠘꠥꠞꠇꠝꠦ ꠡꠝ꠆ꠜꠛ ꠘꠣꠄ ⁕ ꠀꠝꠞꠣ ꠀꠝꠞꠣꠞ ꠛꠦꠛꠀꠞꠇꠣꠞꠤꠘ꠆ꠔꠞ ꠡꠝ꠆ꠙꠞ꠆ꠇꠦ ꠔꠁꠔ꠆ꠔ ꠡꠋꠉ꠆ꠞꠢ ꠨ ꠡꠦꠀꠞ ꠨ ꠀꠞ ꠛꠤꠡ꠆ꠟꠦꠡꠘ ꠘꠣ ꠇꠞꠤ ꠄꠇꠟꠉꠦ ꠇꠣꠝ ꠇꠞꠔꠣꠝ ꠙꠣꠞꠔꠣꠝ ꠘꠣꠄ ꠨ ꠄꠛꠟꠣ ꠀꠝꠞꠣ ꠃꠁꠇꠤꠝꠤꠒꠤꠀ ꠡꠣꠁꠐꠀꠘ꠆ꠔꠞꠦ ꠀꠞꠅ ꠛꠦꠛꠀꠞꠎꠥꠁꠉ꠆ꠉ ꠨ ꠘꠤꠞꠣꠙꠖ ꠨ ꠀꠞ ꠙꠣꠄꠖꠣ ꠇꠞꠣꠞ ꠘꠄꠀ ꠃꠙꠣꠄ ꠈꠥꠋꠎꠞꠣꠝ ⁕
We believe that information-gathering and use should go hand-in-hand with transparency. This Privacy Policy explains how the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that hosts the Wikimedia Sites, like Wikipedia, collects, uses, and shares information we receive from you through your use of the Wikimedia Sites. It is essential to understand that, by using any of the Wikimedia Sites, you consent to the collection, transfer, processing, storage, disclosure, and use of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. That means that reading this Policy carefully is important.
We believe that you should not have to provide nonpublic Personal Information to participate in the free knowledge movement. You do not have to provide things like your real name, address, or date of birth to sign up for a standard account or contribute content to the Wikimedia Sites.
We do not sell or rent your Personal Information, nor do we give it to others to sell you anything. We use it to figure out how to make the Wikimedia Sites more engaging and accessible, to see which ideas work, and to make learning and contributing more fun. Put simply: we use this information to make the Wikimedia Sites better for you.
After all, it is people like you, the champions of free knowledge, who make it possible for the Wikimedia Sites to not only exist, but also grow and thrive.
Definitions
We recognize that only a minority of you are familiar with technical terms like "tracking pixels" and "cookies" used in the Privacy Policy.
Whether you are brand new to privacy terminology or you are an expert who just wants a refresher, you might find our Glossary of Key Terms helpful.
Because everyone (not just lawyers) should be able to easily understand how and why their information is collected and used, we use common language instead of more formal terms throughout this Policy. To help ensure your understanding of some particular key terms, here is a table of translations:
| When we say... | ...we mean: |
|---|---|
| "the Wikimedia Foundation" / "the Foundation" / "we" / "us" / "our" | The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., the non-profit organization that operates the Wikimedia Sites. |
| "Wikimedia Sites" / "our services" | Wikimedia websites and services (regardless of language), including our main projects, such as Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, as well as mobile applications, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), emails, and notifications; excluding, however, sites and services listed in the "What This Privacy Policy Does Not Cover" section below. |
| "you" / "your" / "me" | You, regardless of whether you are an individual, group, or organization, and regardless of whether you are using the Wikimedia Sites or our services on behalf of yourself or someone else. |
| "this Policy" / "this Privacy Policy" | This document, entitled the "Wikimedia Foundation Privacy Policy". |
| "contributions" | Content you add or changes you make to any Wikimedia Sites. |
| "Personal information" | Information you provide us or information we collect that could be used to personally identify you. To be clear, while we do not necessarily collect all of the following types of information, we consider at least the following to be "personal information" if it is otherwise nonpublic and can be used to identify you:
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| "third party" / "third parties" | Individuals, entities, websites, services, products, and applications that are not controlled, managed, or operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. This includes other Wikimedia users and independent organizations or groups who help promote the Wikimedia movement such as Wikimedia chapters, thematic organizations, and user groups as well as volunteers, employees, directors, officers, grant recipients, and contractors of those organizations or groups. |
What This Privacy Policy Does and Does Not Cover
Except as explained below, this Privacy Policy applies to our collection and handling of information about you that we receive as a result of your use of any of the Wikimedia Sites. This Policy also applies to information that we receive from our partners or other third parties. To understand more about what this Privacy Policy covers, please see below.
Examples of What This Privacy Policy Covers
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For the sake of clarity, this Privacy Policy covers, regardless of language:
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This Privacy Policy, however, does not cover some situations where we may gather or process information. For example, some uses may be covered by separate privacy policies (like those of the Wikimedia Shop) or sites or services run by third parties (such as third-party developer projects on Wikimedia Cloud Services). To understand more about what this Privacy Policy does not cover, please see below.
More on what the Wikimedia Foundation Privacy Policy does not cover
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This section is part of the Privacy Policy and is meant to explain in detail which situations are not covered by our Privacy Policy.
Sometimes, volunteers may place a data-collecting tool, such as a script, gadget, tracking pixel, or share button, on a Wikimedia Site without our knowledge. This Policy does not cover how third parties handle the information they receive as a result of such a tool. If you come across such a third-party tool, and you believe it violates this Policy, you can remove the tool yourself, or report it to privacy |
Where community policies govern information, such as the CheckUser policy, the relevant community may add to the rules and obligations set out in this Policy. However, they are not permitted to create new exceptions or otherwise reduce the protections offered by this Policy.
ꠖꠟꠣꠙꠞꠣ ꠀꠞ ꠔꠁꠔ꠆ꠔꠞ ꠛꠦꠛꠀꠞ
Types of Information We Receive From You & How We Get It
Your Public Contributions
Whatever you post on Wikimedia Sites can be seen and used by everyone.
When you make a contribution to any Wikimedia Site, including on user or discussion pages, you are creating a permanent, public record of every piece of content added, removed, or altered by you. The page history will show when your contribution or deletion was made, as well as your username (if you are signed in) or your IP address (if you are not signed in). We may use your public contributions, either aggregated with the public contributions of others or individually, to create new features or data-related products for you or to learn more about how the Wikimedia Sites are used, as further explained below in the "How We Use Information We Receive From You" section of this Privacy Policy.
Publicly Visible Information
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Unless this Policy says otherwise, you should assume that information that you actively contribute to the Wikimedia Sites, including Personal Information, is publicly visible and can be found by search engines. Like most things on the Internet, anything you share may be copied and redistributed throughout the Internet by other people. Please do not contribute any information that you are uncomfortable making permanently public, like revealing your real name or location in your contributions. You should be aware that specific data made public by you or aggregated data that is made public by us can be used by anyone for analysis and to infer further information, such as which country a user is from, political affiliation and gender. |
Account Information & Registration
You do not need to create an account to use any Wikimedia Site.
If you do create an account, you do not need to give us your name or email address (although you can if you choose to, such as for the "Email this user" feature for example).
If you do not create an account, your contributions will be publicly attributed to your IP address.
Want to create an account? Great! Do not want to create an account? No problem!
You are not required to create an account to read or contribute to a Wikimedia Site, except under rare circumstances. However, if you contribute without signing in, your contribution will be publicly attributed to the IP address associated with your device.
If you want to create a standard account, in most cases we require only a username and a password. However, if you choose not to provide an email address, we cannot help you recover your password.
More on Usernames
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Your username will be publicly visible, so please be careful about revealing your real name or other Personal Information in your username. Your password is only used to verify that the account is yours. Your IP address is also automatically submitted to us, and we record it temporarily. This is to protect Wikimedia users and project content; in the event of abuse, IP addresses may be associated with usernames as part of an investigation. No other Personal Information is required: no name, no email address, no date of birth, and no credit card information. Once created, user accounts cannot be removed entirely (although you can usually hide the information on your user page if you choose to). This is because your public contributions must be associated with their author (you!). In some circumstances, the Wikimedia communities can assist users with removing additional information related to their account from the projects. |
To gain a better understanding of the demographics of our users, to localize our services and to learn how we can improve our services, we may ask you for more demographic information, such as gender or age, about yourself. We will tell you if such information is intended to be public or private, so that you can make an informed decision about whether you want to provide us with that information. Providing such information is always completely optional. If you do not want to, you do not have to—it is as simple as that.
Location Information
GPS & Other Location Technologies
Some features we offer work better if we know what area you are in.
If you consent, we can use GPS (and other technologies commonly used to determine location) to show you more relevant content. We keep information obtained by these technologies confidential, except as provided in this Policy. You can learn more by checking out the list of examples of how we use these technologies in our FAQ.
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Sometimes, we automatically receive location data from your device. For example, if you want to upload a photo on the Wikimedia Commons mobile app, we may receive metadata, such as the place and time you took the photo, automatically from your device. Please be aware that, unlike location information collected using GPS signals described above, the default setting on your mobile device typically includes the metadata in your photo or video upload to the Wikimedia Sites. If you do not want metadata sent to us and made public at the time of your upload, please change your settings on your device.
ꠀꠁꠙꠤ ꠑꠤꠇꠣꠘꠣꠁꠘ
Finally, when you visit any Wikimedia Site, we automatically receive the IP address of the device (or your proxy server) you are using to access the Internet, which could be used to infer your geographical location.
Information Related to Your Use of the Wikimedia Sites
We use certain technologies to collect information about how you use Wikimedia Sites.
Like other websites, we receive some information about you automatically when you visit the Wikimedia Sites.
We also use a variety of commonly-used technologies, like cookies, to collect information regarding how you use the Wikimedia Sites, make our services safer and easier to use, and to help create a better and more customizable experience for you.
We want to make the Wikimedia Sites better for you by learning more about how you use them. Examples of this might include how often you visit the Wikimedia Sites, what you like, what you find helpful, how you get to the Wikimedia Sites, and whether you would use a helpful feature more if we explained it differently. We also want this Policy and our practices to reflect our community's values. For this reason, we keep information related to your use of the Wikimedia Sites confidential, except as provided in this Policy.
ꠀꠝꠞꠣ ꠏꠦꠔꠣ ꠏꠦꠔꠣ ꠔꠁꠔ꠆ꠔ ꠀꠙꠌꠦ ꠙꠣꠁ
Because of how browsers work, we receive some information automatically when you visit the Wikimedia Sites. This includes when you use an online tool on a third-party site that loads information coming from the Wikimedia Sites. This information includes the type of device you are using (possibly including unique device identification numbers, for some beta versions of our mobile applications), the type and version of your browser, your browser's language preference, the type and version of your device's operating system, in some cases the name of your internet service provider or mobile carrier, the website that referred you to the Wikimedia Sites, which pages you request and visit, and the date and time of each request you make to the Wikimedia Sites.
Put simply, we use this information to enhance your experience with Wikimedia Sites. For example, we use this information to administer the sites, provide greater security, and fight vandalism; optimize mobile applications, customize content and set language preferences, test features to see what works, and improve performance; understand how users interact with the Wikimedia Sites, track and study use of various features, gain understanding about the demographics of the different Wikimedia Sites, and analyze trends.
ꠀꠝ꠆ꠞꠣ ꠏꠦꠔꠣ ꠏꠦꠔꠣ ꠔꠁꠔ꠆ꠔ ꠖꠟꠣ ꠇꠞꠤ
We use a variety of commonly-used technologies, like cookies, to understand how you use the Wikimedia Sites, make our services safer and easier to use, and to help create a better and more customizable experience for you.
We actively collect some types of information with a variety of commonly-used technologies. These generally include tracking pixels, JavaScript, and a variety of "locally stored data" technologies, such as cookies and local storage. These types of technologies may also be used in online tools on a third-party site that loads information from the Wikimedia Sites. We realize that some of these technologies do not have the best reputation in town and can be used for less-than-noble purposes. So we want to be as clear as we can about why we use these methods and the type of information we collect with them.
Depending on which technology we use, locally stored data may include text, Personal Information (like your IP address), and information about your use of the Wikimedia Sites (like your username or the time of your visit). See below for more information.
We use this information to make your experience with the Wikimedia Sites safer and better, to gain a greater understanding of user preferences and their interaction with the Wikimedia Sites, and to generally improve our services. We will never use third-party cookies, unless we get your permission to do so. If you ever come across a third-party data collection tool that has not been authorized by you (such as one that may have been mistakenly placed by another user or administrator), please report it to us at [email protected].
More on Locally Stored Data
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Locally stored data, JavaScript, and tracking pixels help us do things like:
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Want to know even more? You can read more about some of the specific cookies we use, when they expire, and what we use them for in our FAQ.
We believe this data collection helps improve your user experience, but you may remove or disable some or all locally stored data through your browser settings, depending on your browser. You can learn more about some options you have in our FAQ. While locally stored data may not be necessary to use our sites, some features will not function properly if you disable locally stored data.
While the examples above concerning information about you collected through the use of data collection tools are kept confidential in accordance with this Policy, please note that some information about the actions taken by your username is made publicly available through public logs alongside actions taken by other users. For example, a public log may include the date your account was created on a Wikimedia Site along with the dates that other accounts were created on a Wikimedia Site.
How We Use Information We Receive From You
ꠡꠣꠗꠣꠞꠘ꠆ꠔꠣ
We and our service providers use your information for the legitimate purpose of pursuing our charitable mission, including:
Operating the Wikimedia Sites, sharing your contributions and administering our Services.
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We engage in these activities to manage our relationship with you, because we have a legitimate interest and/or to comply with our legal obligations. |
Providing customized Services.
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We will customize the Services, in some instances, with your consent; or in keeping with our legitimate interest. |
Sending emails with news updates and communications about items we believe may be of interest to you.
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We will send these types of emails to you only with your consent except as otherwise permitted by applicable law. We do not sell, rent, or use your email address to advertise third-party products or services to you. You can manage what kinds of notifications you receive and how often you receive them by going to your Notifications Preferences and User profile. You can learn more about email and notifications and how to change your preferences in our FAQ. |
Sending optional surveys and requesting feedback.
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We will always tell you, at the time we give you an opportunity to share your thoughts, how we plan on using your answers and any Personal Information you provide. Your responses to our surveys and feedback requests are always optional. We will email these types of requests to you only with your consent except as otherwise permitted by applicable law. You can manage what kinds of notifications you receive and how often you receive them by going to your Notifications Preferences and User profile. You can learn more about email and notifications and how to change your preferences in our FAQ. |
Improving the Wikimedia Sites and making your user experience safer and better.
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We engage in these activities to further our legitimate interest and/or to comply with our legal obligations. |
Other
Location information
GPS & Other Location Technologies
As stated above, we can use commonly-used location technologies to show you more relevant content. For example, our mobile apps can identify articles from the Wikimedia sites about points of interest near your location. As a reminder, you can consent to and/or deactivate our access to these location technologies at any time for example through the native OS functionalities on your mobile device, and still use the Wikimedia Sites.
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As stated above, we may automatically receive location data from your device. For example, if you upload a photo using the Wikimedia Commons mobile app, please be aware that the default setting on your mobile device typically results in the metadata associated with your photo being included in the upload. As a reminder, if you do not want metadata sent to us and made public at the time of your upload, please change your settings on your device.
IP Addresses
When you visit any Wikimedia Site, we automatically receive the IP address of the device (or your proxy server) you are using to access the Internet, which could be used to infer your geographical location. We keep IP addresses confidential, except as provided in this Policy. If you are visiting Wikimedia Sites with your mobile device, we may use your IP address to provide anonymized or aggregated information to service providers regarding the volume of usage in certain areas.
We use this location information to make your experience with the Wikimedia Sites safer and better, to gain a greater understanding of user preferences and their interaction with the Wikimedia Sites, and to generally improve our services. For example, we use this information to provide greater security, optimize mobile applications, and learn how to expand and better support Wikimedia communities. We also use Personal Information in the manner described in the sections of this Policy titled "For Legal Reasons" and "To Protect You, Ourselves & Others."
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When May We Share Your Information?
We use and share your Personal Information when you give us specific permission to do so, for legal reasons, and in the other circumstances described below.
With Your Permission
We share your Personal Information for a particular purpose, if you agree. For example, if you receive a scholarship and we ask permission to share your Personal Information with a local chapter. You can find more information in the list of examples in our FAQ.
For Legal Reasons
We will disclose your Personal Information to public authorities or other persons in response to an official legal process only if we believe it to be legally valid. See also our Requests for user information procedures and guidelines. We will notify you of such requests when possible. We do so to further our legitimate interest and/or to comply with our legal obligations.
We will access, use, preserve, and/or disclose your Personal Information if we reasonably believe it necessary to satisfy a valid and legally enforceable warrant, subpoena, court order, law or regulation, or other judicial or administrative order. However, if we believe that a particular request for disclosure of a user's information is legally invalid or an abuse of the legal system and the affected user does not intend to oppose the disclosure themselves, we will try our best to fight it. We are committed to notifying you via email at least ten (10) calendar days, when possible, before we disclose your Personal Information in response to a legal demand. However, we may only provide notice if we are not legally restrained from contacting you, there is no credible threat to life or limb that is created or increased by disclosing the request, and you have provided us with an email address.
Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to limit any legal objections or defenses you may have to a third-party's request (whether it be civil, criminal, or governmental) to disclose your Personal Information. We recommend seeking the advice of legal counsel immediately if such a request is made involving you.
For more information, see our Subpoena FAQ.
If the Organization is Transferred (Really Unlikely!)
In the unlikely event that the ownership of the Foundation changes, we will provide you 30 days' notice before any Personal Information is transferred to the new owners or becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
In the extremely unlikely event that ownership of all or substantially all of the Foundation changes, or we go through a reorganization (such as a merger, consolidation, or acquisition), consistent with our legitimate interest, we will continue to keep your Personal Information confidential, except as provided in this Policy, and provide notice to you via the Wikimedia Sites and a notification on WikimediaAnnounce-L or similar mailing list at least thirty (30) calendar days before any Personal Information is transferred or becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
To Protect You, Ourselves & Others
We, or users with certain administrative rights, use and disclose Personal Information that is reasonably necessary to:
- enforce or investigate potential violations of the Wikimedia Foundation or community-based policies;
- protect our organization, infrastructure, employees, contractors, or the public; or
- prevent imminent or serious bodily harm or death to a person.
We do so to manage our relationship with you, to further our legitimate interest, and/or to comply with our legal obligations.
We, or particular users with certain administrative rights as described below, need to use and share your Personal Information if it is reasonably believed to be necessary to enforce or investigate potential violations of our Terms of Use, this Privacy Policy, or any Wikimedia Foundation or user community-based policies. We may also need to access and share Personal Information to investigate and defend ourselves against legal threats or actions.
Wikimedia Sites are collaborative, with users writing most of the policies and selecting from amongst themselves people to hold certain administrative rights. These rights may include access to limited amounts of otherwise nonpublic information about recent contributions and activity by other users. They use this access to help protect against vandalism and abuse, fight harassment of other users, and generally try to minimize disruptive behavior on the Wikimedia Sites. These various user-selected administrative groups have their own privacy and confidentiality guidelines, but all such groups are supposed to agree to follow our Access to nonpublic personal data policy. These user-selected administrative groups are accountable to other users through checks and balances: users are selected through a community-driven process and overseen by their peers through a logged history of their actions. However, the legal names of these users are not known to the Wikimedia Foundation.
We hope that this never comes up, but we may disclose your Personal Information if we believe that it is reasonably necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm or death to a person, or to protect our organization, employees, contractors, users, or the public. We may also disclose your Personal Information if we reasonably believe it necessary to detect, prevent, or otherwise assess and address potential spam, malware, fraud, abuse, unlawful activity, and security or technical concerns. (Check out the list of examples in our FAQ for more information.)
To Our Service Providers
We disclose Personal Information to our third-party service providers or contractors to help run or improve the Wikimedia Sites and provide services in support of our mission.
We use third-party service providers or contractors to help run or improve the Wikimedia Sites for you and other users. We give access to your Personal Information to these providers or contractors as needed to perform their services for us or to use their tools and services. We put requirements, such as confidentiality agreements, in place to help ensure that these service providers treat your Personal Information consistently with, and no less protective of your privacy than, the principles of this Policy. For further information, please see our FAQ.
If you are visiting Wikimedia Sites with your mobile device, we use your IP address to provide anonymized or aggregated information to service providers regarding the volume of usage in certain areas.
Some of our service providers ask us to post links to their privacy policies; a list of these service providers and links to their policies can be found on this page.
To Understand & Experiment
- We give volunteer developers and researchers access to systems that contain your Personal Information to allow them to protect, develop, and contribute to the Wikimedia Sites.
- We also share non-Personal Information or aggregated information with third parties interested in studying the Wikimedia Sites.
- When we share Personal Information with third parties for these purposes, we put reasonable technical and contractual protections in place to protect your Personal Information consistent with this Policy and our legitimate interest.
The open-source software that powers the Wikimedia Sites depends on the contributions of volunteer software developers, who spend time writing and testing code to help it improve and evolve with our users' needs. To facilitate their work, we give some developers limited access to systems that contain your Personal Information, but only as reasonably necessary for them to develop and contribute to the Wikimedia Sites.
Similarly, we share non-Personal Information or aggregated information with researchers, scholars, academics, and other interested third parties who wish to study the Wikimedia Sites. Sharing this Personal Information helps them understand usage, viewing, and demographics statistics and patterns. They then can share their findings with us and our users so that we can all better understand and improve the Wikimedia Sites.
When we give access to Personal Information to third-party developers or researchers, we put requirements, such as reasonable technical and contractual protections, in place to help ensure that these service providers treat your Personal Information consistently with the principles of this Policy and in accordance with our instructions. If these developers or researchers later publish their work or findings, we ask that they not disclose your Personal Information. Please note that, despite the obligations we impose on developers and researchers, we cannot guarantee that they will abide by our agreement, nor do we guarantee that we will regularly screen or audit their projects. (You can learn more about re-identification in our FAQ.)
Because You Made It Public
Information that you post is public and can be seen and used by everyone.
Any information you post publicly on the Wikimedia Sites is just that – public. For example, if you put your mailing address on your talk page, that is public, and not specifically protected by this Policy. And if you edit without registering or logging into your account, your IP address will be seen publicly. Please think carefully about your desired level of privacy before you disclose Personal Information on your user page or elsewhere.
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How Do We Protect Your Personal Information?
We use a variety of physical and technical measures, policies, and procedures to help protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.
We strive to protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. We use a variety of physical and technical measures, policies, and procedures (such as access control procedures, network firewalls, and physical security) designed to protect our systems and your Personal Information. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as completely secure data transmission or storage, so we cannot guarantee that our security will not be breached (by technical measures or through violation of our policies and procedures).
We will never ask for your password by email (but may send you a temporary password via email if you have requested a password reset). If you ever receive an email that requests your password, please let us know by sending it to [email protected], so we can investigate the source of the email.
How Long Do We Keep Your Data?
Except as otherwise stated in this Policy, we only keep your Personal Information as long as necessary to maintain, understand and improve the Wikimedia Sites or to comply with applicable law.
Once we receive Personal Information from you, we keep it for the shortest possible time that is consistent with the maintenance, understanding, and improvement of the Wikimedia Sites, and our obligations under applicable law. In most instances, Personal Information is deleted, aggregated or de-identified after 90 days. Non-Personal Information may be retained indefinitely as appropriate. (Check out the list of examples in our FAQ.)
Please remember that when you make a contribution to any Wikimedia Site, the page history will show when your contribution was made, your username (if you are signed in), or your IP address (if you edit while not logged in). The transparency of the projects' contribution and revision histories is critical to their efficacy and trustworthiness. To learn more about our data retention practices, see our data retention guidelines.
Your rights
If you would like to request access to or removal of your Personal Information, you may contact us.
For information about how you may request removal of your Personal Information, or other rights you may have with respect to your Personal Information, see our FAQ. If you would like to request to access, update or restrict/object to the processing of Personal Information, or receive a copy of your Personal Information for purposes of transmitting it to another organization, you may Contact Us. We will respond to your request consistent with applicable law.
Please note also that you may be able to exercise some of these rights without our intervention. For example, if you are a registered user, you can access and update some Personal Information in your Preferences, as well as download your user account data. You may also manage what kinds of notifications you receive and how often you receive them by going to your Notifications Preferences.
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For the protection of the Wikimedia Foundation and other users, if you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, you may not use the Wikimedia Sites.
Where is the Foundation & What Does That Mean for Me?
The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, California, with servers and data centers located in the U.S. If you decide to use Wikimedia Sites, whether from inside or outside of the U.S., you understand that your Personal Information will be collected, transferred, stored, processed, disclosed and otherwise used in the U.S. as described in this Privacy Policy. You also understand that your information may be transferred by us from the U.S. to other countries, which may have different or less stringent data protection laws than your country, in connection with providing services to you.
Our Response to Do Not Track (DNT) signals
We are strongly committed to protecting users' Personal Information. Under this Policy, we may share your information only under particular situations, which you can learn more about in the "When May We Share Your Information" section of this Privacy Policy. In particular, we do not share your Personal Information for marketing purposes.
Because we protect all users in accordance with this Privacy Policy, we do not change our behavior in response to a web browser's "do not track" signal.
For more information regarding Do Not Track signals and how we handle them, please visit our FAQ.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
Substantial changes to this Policy will not be made until after a public comment period of at least 30 days.
Because things naturally change over time and we want to ensure our Privacy Policy accurately reflects our practices and the law, it may be necessary to modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. We reserve the right to do so in the following manner:
- In the event of substantial changes, we will provide the proposed changes to our users in at least three (3) languages (selected at our discretion) for an open comment period lasting at least thirty (30) calendar days. Prior to the start of any comment period, we will provide notice of such changes and the opportunity to comment via the Wikimedia Sites, and via a notification on WikimediaAnnounce-L or a similar mailing list.
- For minor changes, such as grammatical fixes, administrative or legal changes, or corrections of inaccurate statements, we will post the changes and, when possible, provide at least three (3) calendar days' prior notice via WikimediaAnnounce-L or similar mailing list.
We ask that you please review the most up-to-date version of our Privacy Policy. Your continued use of the Wikimedia Sites after any effective date of a subsequent version of this Privacy Policy constitutes acceptance of this Privacy Policy on your part.
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If you have questions or suggestions about this Privacy Policy, or the information collected under this Privacy Policy, please email us at [email protected] or contact us directly. If you are located in the European Economic Area and have questions about your personal data or would like to request to access, update, or delete it, you may contact our representative via email at [email protected], or via mail at:
- Bird & Bird GDPR Representative Ireland
- 29 Earlsfort Terrace
- Dublin 2
- D02 AY28
- Ireland
- Main point of contact: Vincent Rezzouk-Hammachi
If you are an individual located in the United Kingdom, and have questions about your personal data or would like to request to access, update, or delete it, you may contact our representative via email at [email protected], or via mail at:
- Bird & Bird GDPR Representative Services UK
- 12 New Fetter Lane
- London
- EC4A 1JP
- United Kingdom
- Main point of contact: Vincent Rezzouk-Hammachi
Our European Economic Area and United Kingdom Representative can only be contacted for queries in relation to data protection.
Depending on your jurisdiction, you also may have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority competent for your country or region.
Thank You!
Thank you for reading our Privacy Policy. We hope you enjoy using the Wikimedia Sites and appreciate your participation in creating, maintaining, and constantly working to improve the largest repository of free knowledge in the world.
Please note that in the event of any differences in meaning or interpretation between the original English version of this Privacy Policy and a translation, the original English version takes precedence.
This version was approved by Amanda Keton on June 7, 2021, pursuant to the Delegation of policy-making authority by the Board, and went into effect on June 25, 2021. Previous versions can be found below:
- Privacy Policy (May 2018 - June 2021): effective from May 24, 2018, until June 24, 2021
- Privacy policy (June 2014 - May 2018): effective from June 6, 2014, until May 24, 2018
- Privacy policy (November 2008 - June 2014): effective from November 25, 2008, until June 6, 2014
- Privacy policy (August 2008 - November 2008): effective from August 19, 2008, until November 25, 2008
- Privacy policy (June 2006 - August 2008): effective from June 21, 2006, until August 19, 2008
- Privacy policy (April 2005 to June 2006): effective from April 2005 until June 21, 2006