Wikipedia:IP edits are not anonymous

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. It is not a policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it.

Editing Wikipedia with an IP as your identifier is often less anonymous than editing with a logged-in account.

[edit] Why is this the case?

Your IP address usually links you to an Internet Service Provider (ISP), and that often links you to a particular geographical location, or to a particular company. Internet tools such as whois and Reverse DNS lookups may identify you, your employer or school, or computers that use your address, including mail or web servers. All of these provide mechanisms for curious individuals to determine where you live or who you are. This is more information than is available about an editor who registers an account and uses the account name instead of an IP address to sign their edits.

[edit] Exceptions

If you edit from an Internet cafe, a library, or another public Internet access point, or if you edit while travelling, your IP address may say very little about you. If you edit through a proxy, your IP will be that of the proxy server, rather than your own. Note that use of anonymizing proxy servers such as Tor is, at a minimum, controversial, and users editing via these proxies are often blocked.

[edit] Second-class treatment for IP editors

Many Wikipedia editors and administrators treat IP editors as (at best) unwelcome party-crashers or as potential vandals. Many ignore the opinions or revert the edits of IP editors simply because they are "anonymous". There is no Wikipedia policy which support this treatment, and there are several long-term and constructive Wikipedia editors who edit solely under a fixed IP.

The treatment of IP editors as second-class editors is unacceptable.