Ombuds commission/2026/Disclosure of CU data
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On 21 May 2026, the Ombuds Commission published the following public statement:
- The Ombuds Commission (OC) investigates infringements of the Privacy, Oversight, Checkuser, and Access to Nonpublic Personal Information (ANPDP) policies.
- In 2019, the Ombuds Commission has published the following advice: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ombuds_commission/2019/CU_Global_Procedure_on_information_disclosure
The requirement Where a disclosure is required to protect a project (like blocks, page protections, suppressions), there must be no one else who has access to the same or same type of information you do that you can disclose the information to in a timely manner (Example: ptwiki checkuser wishes to disclose an IP the arwiki should block to an arwiki sysop. If arwiki had checkusers, or stewards were around that can action on it, then you would have to inform them instead) is still existing and needs to be respected by the individual CheckUsers. - The ANPDP policy itself states: Disclosures of Nonpublic Personal Data are limited to: (i) other Designated Community Members with the same access rights, or who otherwise are permitted to access the same Nonpublic Personal Data, to fulfill the duties outlined in the applicable policy for the access tool used; [...]
- The Commission renews its previous advice to CheckUsers not to share information that has been obtained through the CheckUser tools with other users who do not have this access, even if they have signed the NDA.