Wikipedia:Temporary accounts/Technical

Temporary account IP viewer user right

How to enable IP Reveal

Administrators may grant the temporary account IP viewer (TAIV) user right to non-administrators who meet the criteria for granting. Importantly, an editor must make an explicit request for the permission (e.g. at WP:PERM/TAIV)—administrators are not permitted to assign the right without a request.

Administrators will automatically be able to see temporary account IP information once they have accepted the Access to Temporary Account IP Addresses Policy via Special:Preferences or via the onboarding dialog which comes up after temporary accounts are deployed.

Impact for administrators

It is possible to block many abusers by just blocking their temporary accounts. A blocked person won't be able to create new temporary accounts quickly if the admin selects the autoblock option.
It is still possible to block an IP address or IP range.
Temporary accounts will not be retroactively applied to contributions made before the deployment. On Special:Contributions, you will be able to see existing IP user contributions, but not new contributions made by temporary accounts on that IP address. Instead, you should use Special:IPContributions for this (see a video about IPContributions in a gallery below).

"Hard blocks" (those with autoblock enabled) affect all temporary and named accounts on the same IP as the blocked user. The effects of "soft blocks" (those without autoblock) vary depending on the target.

The target of the block is an IP address or a range of IP addresses
Block configuration		Result
Account creation	Logged-in users from this IP	Temporary accounts on the IP/range	Named accounts on the IP/range	Can users on the IP/range create new ...
Account creation	Logged-in users from this IP	Temporary accounts on the IP/range	Named accounts on the IP/range	temporary accounts?	named accounts?
Not blocked	Not blocked	cannot edit	can edit	cannot create	can create
Blocked	Not blocked		can edit		cannot create
Not blocked	Blocked		cannot edit		can create
Blocked	Blocked		cannot edit		cannot create

The target of the block is a temporary account or a named account
Block configuration		Result
Account creation	Any IP addresses used	The target account	Can the target account create new named accounts while logged in?	Can the autoblocked IPs create new ...
Account creation	Any IP addresses used	The target account		temporary accounts?	named accounts?
Not blocked	Not autoblocked	cannot edit	can create	—
Blocked	Not autoblocked	cannot edit	cannot create^[a]	—
Not blocked	Autoblocked	cannot edit, nor can any autoblocked accounts^[b]	can create	cannot create^[b]	can create
Blocked	Autoblocked	cannot edit, nor can any autoblocked accounts^[b]	cannot create	cannot create^[b]	cannot create^[b]

Rules about IP information disclosure

It is never a violation of the TAIV disclosure policy to make a statement that does not rely on use of the TAIV tool. In particular, this means that purely behavioral comparisons of TAs to old IPs or TAs to named accounts are not governed by that policy. (e.g. "The edits at Sun and Moon by ~2026-90425-92, 192.0.2.1, and User:Example appear to be by the same person.")
- However, TAIVs should take care not to give the impression that they are inappropriately disclosing TAIV information. Especially in the case of TA-to-IP behavioral comparisons, it is recommended to explicitly state that TAIV was not used.
Publicly linking a TA to another TA is allowed if "reasonably believed to be necessary". (e.g. "~2026-90559-26 and ~2026-90693-60 are on the same IP, so I am counting their reverts together toward 3RR", but not "Hey ~2026-90693-60, you did some good editing as ~2026-90559-26".)
- The same is generally true of metadata about an IP address, such as its ISP, whether it appears to be a proxy,^[c] or a general location, unless this information is precise enough that it could plausibly be used to identify the user to a greater degree than they have self-disclosed. Note that some ISPs are very small or even belong to a single person, and that some countries have very small populations or have very few English Wikipedia editors. Avoid disclosing more information than necessary; when feasible, favor relative terms like "~2026-90559-26 and ~2026-90693-60 are on the same ISP and geolocate to the same area".^[d]
Publicizing an IP address gained through TAIV access is generally not allowed (e.g. "~2026-90827-94 previously edited as 192.0.2.1" or "~2026-90827-94's IP address is 192.0.2.1")
- However, users with TAIV access are allowed to take administrative actions that, by their timing, imply a connection between an account and an IP (e.g. indefblocking ~2026-90827-94 and then moments later blocking 192.0.2.1 for a week, or unblocking 192.0.2.2 after ~2026-90961-28 complains of being caught in an IP hardblock). The other restrictions discussed here still apply to the admin's block summary and any other public comments on the blocks. This sometimes means that administrators need to be vague in describing their actions; for instance, if a TAIV requests that the IP underlying several TAs be blocked, the blocking admin should respond with something like "Resolved" rather than "Blocked underlying IP".
- And when "reasonably believed to be necessary", exceptions can be made at appropriate policy-enforcement venues. For any recent disruption, it will usually be enough to tell another TAIV or admin to look at an IP themself, so this exception rarely applies to short-term cases. But it may apply e.g. to long-term abuse pages or sockpuppet investigations. If the disclosure is later shown to be unnecessary or mistaken, the IP addresses should be removed, and revision deletion should be considered.
Saying that a TA is not using a specific IP or range (e.g. "~2026-91095-62's IP puts them far away from 192.0.2.1") does not explicitly violate the disclosure policy; but if a TAIV says this in one case, and does not say it in another, this can lead to editors assuming a connection in the latter case. Vaguer phrasing like "I do not see evidence that ~2026-91095-62 is evading a block" is preferable.
CheckUsers will generally not publicly link named accounts to TAs, due to the fact that this effectively discloses their IP address to any TAIV or admin.

Useful tools for patrollers

The User Info card feature, which can be enabled at Preferences → Appearance → Advanced options → Enable the user info card, makes it possible for anyone to see the approximate count of temporary accounts active on the same IP address range and allows users to view if a user has opted-in to view temporary account IPs.

Special:IPContributions allows viewing all edits and temporary accounts connected to a specific IP address or IP range. Similarly, Special:GlobalContributions supports global search for a given temporary account's activity.

The auto-reveal feature (see video below) allows users with the right permissions to automatically reveal all IP addresses for a limited time window.

Videos

How to use Special:IPContributions
How automatic IP reveal works
How to use IP Info
How to use User Info

Notes

↑ Cookie issues may sometimes allow temp accounts to create accounts when blocked with account creation blocked and autoblock disabled. Note that blocking with these settings is not very effective even when it works correctly, since a user can always log out and then create a new account. Because temp accounts can be both exited and created without conscious effort, a temp-account user blocked in this way may even do this without intending to.
1 2 3 Autoblock length is limited to 24 hours from each time the blocked account attempts to edit a page, even if the underlying block is indefinite. Because temp accounts are forcibly logged out after 90 days, hardblocking a temp account cannot trigger autoblocks any later than that, regardless of block length.
↑ However, see foundation:Legal:Wikimedia IP Information Tool Policy § Use and disclosure of IP information: You may only disseminate proxy-related information as reasonably required.
↑ This sub-bullet is not based on the TAIV disclosure policy, but rather discussion with WMF Legal, who have explicitly endorsed this interpretation of policy.

[1] Cookie issues may sometimes allow temp accounts to create accounts when blocked with account creation blocked and autoblock disabled. Note that blocking with these settings is not very effective even when it works correctly, since a user can always log out and then create a new account. Because temp accounts can be both exited and created without conscious effort, a temp-account user blocked in this way may even do this without intending to.

[autoblock-2] 1 2 3 Autoblock length is limited to 24 hours from each time the blocked account attempts to edit a page, even if the underlying block is indefinite. Because temp accounts are forcibly logged out after 90 days, hardblocking a temp account cannot trigger autoblocks any later than that, regardless of block length.

[3] However, see foundation:Legal:Wikimedia IP Information Tool Policy § Use and disclosure of IP information: You may only disseminate proxy-related information as reasonably required.

[4] This sub-bullet is not based on the TAIV disclosure policy, but rather discussion with WMF Legal, who have explicitly endorsed this interpretation of policy.

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