5 Requests granted 32 Total requests

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, 2023. For historical data, please see our past reports.

User accounts potentially affected985
User accounts actually affected896
User accounts notified34

Type of information requested

6.25% Content requests 93.75% Non-content requests

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 requests13
Informal non-government requests11
International court orders1
Civil subpoenas3
Criminal subpoenas3
Administrative subpoenas0
Search warrants1
Court orders0
National security requests0

Origination of user information requests

Origination of user information requests - TR 2023-2
CountryRequestsPartially
Completed
Fully
Completed
Austria100
Brazil200
France200
Germany500
India400
Italy100
Japan200
Portugal100
Singapore200
South Africa100
Spain100
United Kingdom300
United States of America705

Comparison of user information requested and granted

Comparison of user information requested and granted - 2023-2

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

EntityRequestsGranted% Granted
LinkedIn84554064%
Google211,201168,96080%
Meta271,692208,93176.9%
Wikimedia4137.3%

* Due to the inconsistent release dates across different organizations, comparison data for the period covered by this report (July 2023–December 2023) was not available, so we are presenting the comparison data above for January 2023–June 2023. 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

18 Government requests
Informal government requestGovernment body Requests
BrazilFederal Agency1
FranceJudicial Police
National Police
1
1
GermanyState Police
Federal Police
District Police
1
1
1
IndiaFederal Agency
Cyber Police
1
1
JapanCity Police1
PortugalNational Police1
SingaporeNational Police
Politicians, Candidates,
and Political Parties
1

1
SpainLocal Police1
International court ordersGovernment bodyRequests
BrazilState Court1
Criminal subpoenasGovernment bodyRequests
United States of AmericaDistrict Court
Municipal Court
Federal Agency
1
1
1
Search warrants Government bodyRequests
United States of America District Court1

User information: emergency disclosures

0 Emergency requests 14 Voluntary 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”.

Voluntary disclosures

Terrorist threats1
Suicide threats2
Individual threats11

Emergency requests

Emergency requests0
User information emergency disclosures - TR 2023-2

User information: preservation requests

2 Total 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.

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Photo credits

DMCA takedown notices - 2022-1

Wikimedia Foundation

Origination of user information requests - TR 2023-2

Origination of user information requests - TR 2023-2

Wikimedia Foundation

Comparison of user information requested and granted - 2023-2

Comparison of user information requested and granted - 2023-2

Wikimedia Foundation

User information emergency disclosures - TR 2023-2

User information emergency disclosures - TR 2023-2

Wikimedia Foundation