 | This is an information page. It is not an encyclopedic article, nor one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Use caution when posting personally identifiable information online. If you become stalked or harassed through such information, or simply want any identifiable information removed, email a trusted Administrator or Wikipedia:Requests for oversight for discreet and confidential handling of such incidents. |
This page is intended as a guideline for user security concerns and practices on Wikipedia. It adapts some information from the Wikimedia Foundation's privacy policy to address some personal security concerns that may arise in the course of editing Wikipedia.
Many of these concerns have to do with the availability of personal information in a public space. If you only read Wikipedia without contributing, no more personal information is collected than is typically collected in server logs by web sites in general.
If you contribute to Wikipedia, however, you are publishing every word you post publicly. If you write something, assume that it will be retained forever. This includes articles, user pages and talk pages.
If you become stalked or harassed on Wikipedia via any information posted about you on-site, whether by you or anyone else, it is recommended that you report this discreetly via off-site means, such as email, to a trusted administrator or at Wikipedia:Requests for oversight, which maintains a confidential email service that can be used to request removal of such instances without drawing further attention to them on-site. Edits removed with oversight can only be seen by editors with oversight access, stewards, and certain WMF staff members.