WP OUTING Any edit that outs someone must be reverted promptly followed by a request for Oversight to delete that edit from Wikipedia permanently Unless unintentional and non malicious for example where Wikipedians know each other off site and may inadvertently post personal information such as using the other person s real name in discussions attempted outing is grounds for an immediate block Posting of personal information Shortcuts WP OUTING WP PRIVACY WP OUTING redirects here For the alternate meaning of outing as in excursion see Wikipedia Meetup For the Wikimedia privacy policy see Wikimedia Privacy policy Posting another editor s personal information is harassment unless that person voluntarily had posted his or her own information or links to such information on Wikipedia Personal information includes legal name date of birth identification numbers home or workplace address job title and work organisation telephone number email address or other contact information whether any such information is accurate or not Posting such information about another editor is an unjustifiable and uninvited invasion of privacy and may place that editor at risk of harm outside of their activities on Wikipedia This applies to the personal information of both editors and non editors It also applies in the case of an editor who has requested a change in username but whose old identifying marks can still be found Any edit that outs someone must be reverted promptly followed by a request for Oversight to delete that edit from Wikipedia permanently If an editor has previously posted their own personal information but later redacted it it should not be repeated on Wikipedia although references to still existing self disclosed information is not considered outing If the previously posted information has been removed by Oversight then repeating it on Wikipedia is considered outing The fact that a person either has posted personal information or edits under their own name making them easily identifiable through online searches is not an excuse for opposition research Dredging up their off line opinions to be used to constantly challenge their edits can be a form of harassment just as doing so regarding their past edits on other Wikipedia articles may be However if individuals have identified themselves without redacting or having it oversighted such information can be used for discussions of conflict of interest in appropriate forums If redacted or oversighted personally identifying material is important to the COI discussion then it should be emailed privately to an administrator or arbitrator but not repeated on Wikipedia it will be sufficient to say that the editor in question has a COI and the information has been emailed to the appropriate administrative authority If you see an editor post personal information about another person do not confirm or deny the accuracy of the information Doing so would give the person posting the information and anyone else who saw the page feedback on the accuracy of the material Do not treat incorrect attempts at outing any differently from correct attempts for the same reason When reporting an attempted outing take care not to comment on the accuracy of the information Outing should usually be described as an attempted outing or similar to make it clear that the information may or may not be true and it should be made clear to the users blocked for outing that the block log and notice does not confirm the information Unless unintentional and non malicious for example where Wikipedians know each other off site and may inadvertently post personal information such as using the other person s real name in discussions attempted outing is grounds for an immediate block Threats to out an editor will be treated as a personal attack and dealt with accordingly