Welcome to the Unblock Ticket Request System. We recognize that you are a volunteer working to contribute towards the world's largest free online encyclopedia. As such, we recognize that there may be some information you'd rather keep private. We value that privacy and wish to assure you that we have taken steps to ensure that by requesting unblocking here, you are not at risk of exposing your identity on the internet. At the same time, however, in order to properly process your unblock request, we do need to collect certain information that will allow us to distinguish you from others editing from the same or a nearby location.
What data do we collect, and why?
This system records your IP Address and useragent data. This information may be processed overseas and your data will remain confidential. It is important to note that this information is provided by your internet browser to any website you visit; it is not possible to confirm any specific person's identity with this information. We only use this to confirm that multiple accounts or IP addresses were used by the same person, whoever that person may be.
We also require your email address so that we can respond to you with questions and the result of your appeal.
By submitting an appeal at UTRS, you agree to provide this information and allow UTRS volunteers to view it for the explicit purpose of reviewing your block on the English Wikipedia.
How is this data stored, and who can see it?
We store this data in a secure database, which is visible only to UTRS developers, several of whom are identified to the Wikimedia Foundation, just as Checkusers are required to do. In order to assist with reviewing your block, this information is provided to UTRS volunteers as follows:
- Your email address will be obscured for most people reviewing your block. All emails we send you will be sent through the system, so there is no need for volunteers to view your email address in full. As a result, only the domain of your address will be visible to most volunteers (for example, wikiuser@gmail.com will display only as *****@gmail.com). The domain remains visible to assist volunteers in determining if you are a legitimate user of a school or business network, if you are editing from one. UTRS tool developers will be able to see your full email address to ensure the tool is working properly. (Administrators: Your email address is stored along with your UTRS account to allow tool administrators to contact you about your account. This does not get deleted, but is never visible to anyone other than UTRS developers looking at the database itself.)
- Your IP address will be visible alongside the rest of your appeal to anyone reviewing the block. Again, this is necessary to allow us to look up your block and determine possible outcomes.
- Your useragent will only be visible to UTRS developers and those reviewing the block that have access to the CheckUser tool on Wikipedia. CheckUsers need to see your useragent to help differentiate you from the person the block is intended for, and UTRS developers need to see this information to ensure the tool is working properly.
At no point will your data be provided to a third party for any purpose; furthermore, this information will be removed from our system no more than one week after your appeal is closed. This removal process is automated, so you don't need to worry about anyone forgetting to hit the "delete" button.
Finally, we are not the Wikimedia Foundation. We are a group of volunteers who have made our identities known to the foundation.
What are your rights with regard to this information?
If you wish to see what information has been collected on you by this system, you may email the development team at unblock@toolserver.org to request all information associated with your appeal.
If you do not wish for this information to be collected by UTRS, you may appeal via your talk page on Wikipedia, or by email to unblock-en-l@lists.wikimedia.org. Please note that if you appeal on Wikipedia, your IP address and useragent may be examined by any CheckUser, with cause, in accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation Privacy Policy. If you appeal by email, your email address will naturally be visible to all volunteers on the mailing list, and they may require that you provide additional information in order to look up your block.
If you have already entered an appeal at UTRS and wish for your information to be deleted immediately, please email the development team at unblock@toolserver.org to have your appeal deleted from the database. You will then need to appeal your block through one of the alternate venues mentioned above. Again, please note that this information will be automatically removed one week after your appeal is resolved.
If you have any questions about this policy, please contact the development team at unblock@toolserver.org.