Ombuds commission

The ombudsman commission investigates complaints about violations of the privacy policy (in particular concerning the use of CheckUser tools) on any Wikimedia project for the Board of Trustees . To file a complaint, please contact an Ombudsman privately.

About

Tasks

In addition to official investigation, they will mediate between the complainant and the respondent (usually a CheckUser , Bureaucrat , Administrator , or arbitration committee member). When legally necessary, the ombudsman will assist the General Counsel, the Executive Director or the board in handling the case.

When the case is litigious, the ombudsman will be in charge of educating CheckUsers or others about the Foundation's privacy policy. When the privacy policy has been breached, the commission should report to the Executive Director or to the Board and recommend a course of action (such as removal of CheckUser access). Additionally, the commission might suggest suitable changes to policies or software.

Neutrality

An ombudsman's investigation should be conducted in a manner determined by the ombudsman to ensure fairness and impartiality. As a general guideline, it is best that ombudsmen avoid conflicts of interest as much as possible, particularly by avoiding routine use of CheckUser access and not processing complaints on the projects on which they are very active editors. However, matters that come before the commission are not clearcut, and the language and culture of various projects may pose barriers to outsiders. As such, how the commission investigates complaints is left to the discretion of its appointed members.

Contact

Ombudsman requests may be made to the following email address (preferably in a language spoken by one of the members):

cu-ombuds-l

lists

wikimedia

org

Membership

Members of the ombudsman commission are selected by Wikimedia Foundation officials from the Wikimedia community (volunteers are welcome to propose themselves to the Foundation by writing to liaison wikimedia org). They are appointed (assuming they agree) for a period of approximately one year. An ombudsman's real identity must be disclosed to the Foundation legal counsel. A non-voting alternate member may be appointed to serve for one year, with an expectation for a seat as a full member the following year.

Assigned rights

⧼group-Ombudsmen⧽ have the following rights globally:

Search deleted pages (browsearchive)
Check users' IP addresses and other information (checkuser)
View the checkuser log (checkuser-log)
View deleted history entries, without their associated text (deletedhistory)
View deleted text and changes between deleted revisions (deletedtext)
View private logs (suppressionlog)

Current ombudsman users

See also automatically generated list (terms expire February 2024):

User	Home wiki(s)	Language spoken	IRC nick	Term expires
だ＊ぜ (CA)	zhwiki	zh, yue, wuu, lzh, en-4, ja-3	`Dasze`	2026
Ameisenigel (CA)	dewiki, wikidatawiki	de, en-4, nds-2, fr-1, tlh-1	`Ameisenigel`	2026
Arcticocean (CA)		en, sco-3, es-2, gd-1		2026
Emufarmers (CA)	enwiki	en, la-2	`Emufarmers`	2026
Faendalimas (CA) *	wikispecies	en, pt-3, it-2, fr-1	`faendalimas`	2026
Nehaoua (CA)	arwiki, frwiki	ar-n, fr-4, en-2		2026
Renvoy (CA)	ukwiki	uk, ru-4, en-3, pl-3, lt-1		2026
Revi C. (CA)	kowiki, commonswiki, metawiki	ko, en-3	`revi`	2027
RoySmith (CA)	enwiki	en	`roy649`	2026
Teles (CA)	ptwiki	pt, en-3, es-2	`Teles`	2027
Vermont (CA) ‡	enwiki, metawiki, simplewiki	en, ru-2, es-1	`Vermont`	2026
Zafer (CA)	trwiki	tr, en-3, az-2, ru-1, kk-1		2027

† Advisory member; ‡ Steward-Observer; * Chair, terms expire in February of listed year

Previous ombudsmen

Commission member	Member from	Member until	Community
Acagastya	February 2021	February 2022	enwikinews
Ajraddatz	February 2020	February 2022	metawiki, wikidata
Alan	February 2016	February 2018	commonswiki
Alhen	February 2015	February 2017	eswiki
AmandaNP	February 2019	February 2021	enwiki
Avraham	February 2014	February 2016	enwiki
Barras	February 2015	November 2016	simplewiki, metawiki
Bennylin	February 2023	September 2023	idwiki, jvwiki
Billinghurst	February 2018	February 2019	enwikisource
Carkuni	February 2010	February 2011	jawiki
Cartman02au (Nathan Carter)	July 2006	December 2007	enwikinews
Daniuu	February 2023	February 2025	nlwiki
Deskana	February 2013	September 2013	enwiki
Doğu	February 2024	November 2024	trwiki
DR	February 2010	February 2011	ruwiki
Dweller	February 2011	February 2013	enwiki
Dyolf77	February 2018	February 2020	commonswiki
Elian	February 2010	February 2011	dewiki
Elmacenderesi	February 2018	February 2021	trwiki
Érico	February 2022	February 2023	ptwiki
Erzbischof	February 2013	February 2014	dewiki
EVinente	February 2019	February 2020	ptwiki
FloNight	February 2011	February 2013	enwiki
Galahad	February 2019	February 2023	eswikivoyage
Galahad	February 2025	May 2025	eswikivoyage
Gnom	February 2014	February 2017	dewiki
Góngora	February 2017	February 2019	cawiki, eswiki
Hei ber	December 2007	January 2009	dewiki
Herbythyme	February 2011	April 2011	commonswiki
Huji	February 2013	February 2017	fawiki
Infinite0694	February 2022	February 2023	jawiki
Jamie Tubers	February 2018	February 2020	enwiki
JJMC89	February 2021	February 2024	enwiki
Kelapstick	February 2020	February 2020	enwiki
Krd	February 2017	February 2020	dewiki, commonswiki
Lankiveil	February 2017	April 2018	enwiki
Lar	February 2010	February 2011	enwiki, commonswiki
Levg	February 2013	February 2015	ruwiki
M7	February 2014	June 2014	itwiki
Mackensen	December 2007	January 2009	enwiki
MdsShakil	February 2023	February 2025	bnwiki, bnwikibooks
Minorax	February 2023	February 2025	commonswiki, metawiki, simplewiktionary, wikidatawiki
Moheen	February 2021	February 2022	bnwiki
MrJaroslavik	February 2021	February 2022	cswiki
Mwpnl	February 2011	February 2013	nlwiki
Mykola7	February 2022	February 2023	ukwiki
NahidSultan	February 2016	February 2017	bnwiki, commonswiki
Olugold	February 2022	February 2023	enwiki, wikidatawiki, igwiki
Pajz	February 2016	February 2019	dewiki
Palnatoke	February 2010	February 2011	dawiki
PatríciaR	January 2009	February 2010	commonswiki
PhilKnight	February 2015	February 2017	enwiki
Polimerek	February 2014	February 2018	plwiki
ProtoplasmaKid	February 2021	February 2022	eswiki
Pundit	February 2011	February 2012	plwiki
Rebecca	December 2007	December 2008	enwiki
Richwales	February 2017	February 2018	enwiki
Rubin16	February 2015	February 2018	ruwiki
Saileshpat	February 2018	February 2019	orwiki
Sam Korn	January 2009	February 2010	enwiki
Schiste	January 2009	February 2010	frwiki
Shizhao	January 2009	February 2010	zhwiki
Sir48	February 2011	February 2015	dawiki
Stryn	February 2014	July 2016	fiwiki, wikidatawiki
Superpes15	February 2021	February 2022	itwiki
Taketa	February 2016	February 2017	nlwiki
Taketa	February 2020	February 2021	nlwiki
Thogo	February 2011	February 2016	dewiki
Tinz	January 2009	February 2010	dewiki
Udehb	February 2022	February 2023	wikidatawiki
UninvitedCompany (Steve Dunlop)	July 2006	December 2007	enwiki
Uzoma Ozurumba	February 2020	February 2021	metawiki
Vogone	February 2017	February 2018	wikidata, dewiki, metawiki
Wegge (Anders Wegge Jakobsen)	July 2006	December 2007	dawiki
Wikilover90	February 2019	February 2021	pawiki
Zabe	February 2022	May 2023	wikidatawiki, mediawikiwiki

Chart

Submission

Please follow these guidelines when submitting an inquiry to the commission:

Be concise. Lengthy emails with unnecessary information make it harder for the commission to process the case in a timely manner.
Be objective. Avoid making inquiries based on speculations or subjective judgements.
Provide evidence. Please provide us with diff links and/or permanent links when possible.
Be specific. Specify what part of which policy has been violated.
Please inform us if your wiki has an Arbitration Committee (or a similar committee) and if you have reached them (or used other dispute resolution procedure customary to your community) before reaching the Ombudsman Commission. Provide a link to the relevant case page if appropriate.

Processing/Reporting

Cases brought to our attention will be processed the following way:

Confirmation of the request: we will send a notice of confirmation to the requester, and if necessary ask for further information.
Scope: if the request is within the scope of the ombudsman commission, we will do the investigation, if not we will decline the request and try to direct the complainor to a better place to get help for his/her individual problem.
Investigation: We do whatever is necessary to find out whether or not there was a breach of the privacy policy.
Result: We give the result of our investigation to the requester, and if there was indeed a breach of the privacy policy, we will inform the user who was investigated and if necessary inform the Board of Trustees and if necessary recommend removing CU or steward rights from the user breaking the policy.