Although I can't speak for the Research Committee, I agree with Pradeep that this is unlikely to violate any users privacy.
ASN cover very broad areas, significantly broader areas than you can gain with the first three octets of an IP address. So they should reveal less information than 125.237.89.xxx would reveal. Plainly put, they reveal a user's ISP and maybe general region, but that is it. Hope this explanation helps you with your efforts to convince the Research Committee Pradeep. Thank you, Derric Atzrott -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of MZMcBride Sent: 14 June 2012 22:32 To: Wikimedia developers Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] Request for data from Wikimedia Foundation for academic research Pradeep Bangera wrote: > I am a PhD student from Institute IMDEA Networks, Spain. I very much > appreciate the data that you have published in Wikimedia Report Card. > I am writing this email as a kind request for a possible cooperation > for assisting me in my research work by sharing your data without > violating anyone's privacy. > > I have a task of developing a list of Internet Service Providers > (ISPs) around the globe for 2012. One way of doing it is by mapping > the IP addresses of the internet users who visit your websites to > their corresponding Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) of the ISPs. For > this I need to have IP address dataset logged by your web server in > 2012 and certainly I do not seek it (IPs) being well aware of the > privacy concerns of any website companies. So instead of the IP > addresses, if you can cooperate in running a simple bash script (which > I will send if you agree) on my behalf which will map the IP address > (2012 recorded) from your database to its corresponding ASN and > handover the ASNs dataset to me, I will be thankful and greatly > appreciate for your time and cooperation. Hi Pradeep, https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Index was designed for this purpose. "The Wikimedia Research Index is the main research hub for wiki researchers and the Wikimedia community. It's run by the Wikimedia Research Committee and collaboratively maintained by its participants." You should consult the Research Committee about the type of data you're after and whether it's possible to obtain it given Wikimedia's privacy policy and other considerations. MZMcBride _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
