w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2025-05-14/Technology report

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|alt = "Basic explanation of the privacy protection built into Edge Uniques"

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Starting on May 19, the Wikimedia Foundation's sites will set a unique first-party cookie on users' browsers - a practice that is very common on the web, but has so far been avoided on WMF sites for privacy reasons. WMF stresses that its new "Edge Uniques" system {{tq|will implement this cookie in a privacy-preserving way}}, based on

{{tqb|a process that reads, verifies, and discards a copy of the cookie "at the edge" of our computing systems – meaning the first point where visitor traffic enters our network. This process minimizes the time this uniquely identifying information about a logged-out user will be present in our system to seconds and typically milliseconds. Because we are not storing this cookie in our traffic logs or databases, we cannot create user profiles that could be used to track readers' usage behavior over time. This solution will provide a standardized, privacy-preserving framework that staff and volunteer developers can use when implementing new features, bots, tools, and gadgets that require continuity or analytics.}}

The benefits of this solution are described as follows:

{{tqb|1. Improve user experience through A/B testing [...]

2. Enable protection against DDoS attacks [...]

3. Understanding our visitor trends
[...] we need to accurately count how many visits our wikis receive on different types of devices and in different geographies (among other dimensions) [and the new cookie will enable a more precise count than the currently used "Unique devices" solution]}}

Despite the efforts to discard the unique value of the cookie almost immediately (which still sets WMF apart from many other websites), some privacy concerns remained, with one former WMF engineer pointing out that {{tq|We've gone from a system where its impossible for WMF to track people, to one where we rely on trust for WMF to do the right thing. Sure the software is open source and whatnot, but there is no way for the average user to verify that the deployed software is the software it is supposed to be.}}

[https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/NTPQXJ73RVHLDCICVXDHIVME3HNVEZ5H/ In response], the Foundation added a canary page {{tq|that can be used to verify what Wikimedia Foundation does with the Edge Unique cookie.}}

– {{small|H}}

The Wikimedia foundation is now rolling out an update where you're able to get a QR code for a page on some Wikimedia projects (Special:QrCode). – {{small|V}}

A new Wikipedia has been introduced in Nupe. This is a language primarily used in the North Central region of Nigeria.

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{{hatnote|For further news and updates associated with user scripts, see the Scripts++ Newsletter}}

• {{userscript|code=User:Jeeputer/PCBIndicator.js|name=PCBIndicator|doc=User:Jeeputer/PCBIndicator}} adds an icon indicating the current level of the Pending Changes backlog

• Jlwoodbot

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community: 2025 #20, #19, & #18

{{further|Wikipedia:User scripts#How do you install user scripts?}}

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