Website Privacy Policy
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This policy describes what happens to personal information that we obtain from your interactions with the websites hosted at uk.wikimedia.org and wikimedia.org.uk. For details of other processing and storage of data personal information the Chapter undertakes outside the functioning of these websites, please see our Data Protection Policy and Donor Privacy Policy This policy will be updated periodically subject to approval by the Charity's board of Trustees.
There are some technical terms used in this policy. Clicking a highlighted technical term will link you to a webpage with an explanation.
Who are you?
We are Wikimedia UK, and we are responsible for the websites hosted at uk.wikimedia.org and wikimedia.org.uk.
We are the local UK chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, and we share its cultural and educational objectives. However, we are a separate organisation. Thus, we have no control over personal information collected through websites for Wikipedia or other Wikimedia Foundation projects.
What type of personal information do you collect?
We collect certain information automatically when your computer or other device visits our websites. This will be things like:
- your IP address
- the date and time of your visit
- the pages from our websites that you view
- the browser that you use
We also collect certain additional information in connection with the following activities (and note that some of this will be made automatically public):
| Activity | Information collected | Public/private |
|---|---|---|
| editing pages on our websites | all your editing and contributions (recorded by reference to your username, or by reference to your IP address if you are not logged in) | public |
| anything you do while logged in as a registered user | all your activities on our websites, including the content of any messages sent through our websites | private (but messages sent to the mailing list for a project or event will be public) |
| adding your email address to the mailing list for a project or event | your email address | public |
| sending an email to one of our email accounts (such as volunteering@wikimedia.org.uk) |
|
private |
| registering to become a member of Wikimedia UK | this is subject to a separate policy | please click this link for further details |
What do you do with my personal information?
We use your personal information for the following purposes:
- identifying and terminating abuse of our websites or other disruptive behaviour (this could be things like the use of 'sockpuppets' or duplicate accounts, vandalism, or harassment of others);
- protecting the safety of individuals;
- investigating and responding to requests or complaints from users of our websites;
- identifying and resolving technical problems with our websites;
- improving the operation or features of our websites;
- bringing or defending legal proceedings.
Who will have access to my personal information?
The following persons may have access to your personal information for the purposes described above (and will be obliged to keep that information confidential):
- registered users who have been elected by the community to support the activities of the community (you can read more about these users here)
- our employees or contractors
- our trustees
- our software developers
- our legal and business advisers
- ISPs (and similar types of carriers and service providers)
- the other claimants and defendants to legal proceedings involving us
Where required to do so under a court order or other legally compulsory request, we will also provide your personal information to the person or entity specified in that order or request.
We also make public the usage statistics for our websites. These statistics are anonymised before publication to ensure that you (and your activities) cannot be identified or tracked. For this reason, IP addresses and usernames do not form part of statistics information that we publish.
What are cookies, and how do you use them?
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or other device by websites. Cookies are used for a wide variety of purposes. Some help websites perform properly, such as keeping you logged in as you move from page to page. Others collect information on your browsing activities within that website or more generally across the internet. You can find more information on cookies (including how to block or delete them) on this website
To see an up to date list of the cookies used by our sites please visit Cookies Log.
Where do you hold my personal information? Can I find out what personal information you hold about me?
Our Data Protection Policy details how Wikimedia UK stores your personal information and how you can find out what personal information we hold about you."
What else should I be aware of?
Some of your activities on our websites will be public acts that will result in your personal information being permanently and publicly available. You must ensure that you feel comfortable with this before engaging in these activities:
| Activity | Public availability |
|---|---|
| editing pages on our websites |
|
| adding your email address to the mailing list for a project or event | your email address becomes part of the public record for that project or event |
| sending a message to the mailing list for a project or event | your email address and the content of your message becomes part of the public record for that project or event |
Where can I find more information in relation to my rights?
The Information Commissioner's Office is the UK's independent authority that is responsible for upholding data privacy for individuals. You can find additional information on your rights under the Data Protection Act 1998 on the Information Commissioner's website.