Requests for user information

Freedom of speech is essential to the Wikimedia movement—the projects cannot flourish in an ecosystem where individuals cannot speak freely. Our users trust us to protect their identities against unlawful disclosure, and we take this responsibility seriously.

However, every year, governments, individuals, and corporations ask us to disclose user data. Often, we have no nonpublic information to disclose because we collect little nonpublic information about users and retain that information for a short period of time. But when we do have data, we carefully evaluate every request before considering disclosure. If the requests do not meet our standards—if they are overly broad, unclear, or irrelevant—we will push back on behalf of our users.

If we must produce information due to a legally valid request, we will notify the affected user before we disclose, if we are legally permitted and have the means to do so. In certain cases, we may help find assistance for users to fight an invalid request.

Below, you will find more information about the requests for user data we receive.

This report covers requests we received between July and December, 2024. For historical data, please see our past reports.

User accounts potentially affected	33
User accounts actually affected	4
User accounts notified	5

Type of information requested

We divide the requests we receive by the type of information requested: “content” or “non-content.”

Most content information on the Wikimedia projects is the public content of articles and project pages; “non-content” information refers to information such as IP addresses or user agent information. The distinction comes from the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or ECPA. Please see our FAQ for more information.

Informal government requests	7
Informal non-government requests	10
International court orders	3
Civil subpoenas	2
Criminal subpoenas	0
Administrative subpoenas	0
Search warrants	1
Court orders	0
National security requests	0

Origination of user information requests

Country	Requests	Partially Complied	Fully Complied
Belgium	1	0	0
Brazil	1	0	1
Canada	1	0	0
Egypt	1	0	0
France	2	0	0
Germany	2	0	0
Greece	1	0	0
India	2	1	0
Japan	1	0	0
The Republic of South Korea	1	0	0
Russian Federation	1	0	0
Sweden	1	0	0
Taiwan	1	0	0
United States of America	6	0	0
Unknown	1	0	0

Comparison of user information requested and granted

Compared to other companies, we received relatively few requests, and granted relatively low percentages.*

Entity	Requests	Granted	% Granted
LinkedIn	1,409	746	53%
Google	236,520	193,946	82%
Meta	323,846	248,713	76.8%
X	18,737	9,897	52.82%
Wikimedia	26	2	7.69%

* Due to the inconsistent release dates across different organizations, comparison data for the period covered by this report (July 2024–December 2024) was not available, so we are presenting the comparison data above for January 2024–June 2024. Please also note that figures for Wikimedia include additional types of requests for user data that are not included in the other organizations’ figures. See the FAQ for more details.

User information: government requests

Informal government requests	Government body	Requests
Belgium	City Police	1
Greece	Cyber Police	1
France	Judicial Police National Police	1 1
Sweden	Regional Police	1
Taiwan	State Agency	1
India	Cyber Police	1

Search warrants	Government body	Requests
The Republic of South Korea	District Police	1

User information: emergency disclosures

We report two types of emergency disclosures, which happen on rare occasions.

First, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act provides an expedited process for law enforcement to request user data from websites in cases of immediate threat to life or limb. We call these “emergency requests”. Such requests are also addressed in our Requests for User Information Procedures & Guidelines and Privacy Policy.

Second, we proactively contact the authorities when we become aware of troubling statements on the projects, such as suicide threats or bomb threats. We take these statements seriously and assess each one individually, contacting law enforcement as appropriate to help resolve the issue. We call these “voluntary disclosures”.

User information: preservation requests

Occasionally, we receive a preservation request from the U.S. government under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. A preservation request is an order to retain information that would otherwise be deleted, anonymized, or aggregated within 90 days, according to our Data Retention Guidelines. If we receive one of these requests, we are legally required to retain the specific information indicated. However, we will not turn this information over to the requesting party unless they subsequently follow our Requests for User Information Procedures & Guidelines, and obtain a legal order, such as a subpoena or warrant, for the information in question.

Here, we provide the number of new preservation requests we received during the period covered by this report.