Make it possible to set the IPInfo user preference globally
Closed, ResolvedPublicBUG REPORT
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	dom_walden
	Jan 11 2022, 3:23 PM

Description

Summary

The IP Info user preference to enable use of the tool currently is set to only be enabled locally. We should allow this to be enabled globally, given that this has been approved by WMF Legal.

Background

The IP Info extension has a preference used to enable use of the tool, which asks the user to only use it to respond to abuse
This preference can only be enabled locally, which was done because it was unclear if enabling globally was allowed
WMF Legal has since approved enabling this preference globally, so we can undo the change to make it local only
This is needed to be able to work on the temporary accounts onboarding dialog

Technical notes

Should just involve reverting 4392d00483929e237705b45091cb6d28ed3d704d, but could involve adding some tests if necessary

Acceptance criteria

It is possible to enable the IP Info use agreement preference globally

Original ticket description

What is the problem?

Currently, all the user preferences associated with IPInfo (T264150 and T292802) can be set globally.

We should decide whether this is desirable.

For example, we might prefer that administrators have to explicitly request access on each wiki they want to use IPInfo on.

If we decide to allow the preferences to be set globally, T&S needs to be aware that there are two possible places they need to look at (e.g. if they want to know who has access to IPInfo).

We should also be aware that allowing options to be set globally increases the amount of testing necessary (in my experience by a significant amount).

Steps to reproduce problem

To enable these options globally:

Clone and enable GlobalPreferences extension ( wfLoadExtension("GlobalPreferences"); )
Go to Special:GlobalPreferences (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Special:GlobalPreferences)
Click on the "Beta features" tab
Scroll down to the "IP Info" checkbox
Click both checkboxes to make it global and turn it on globally
Click Save
Go to the "User profile" tab
Scroll down to the section titled "IP Information"
Check all four checkboxes to enable both options globally
Click Save

Screenshots

The IP Info checkbox on the Beta features tab:

global_pref_beta.png (385×883 px, 41 KB)

IP Information section on the User profile tab:

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:

Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
Make IPInfo use agreement preference global	mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo	master	+442 -39
Don't unset ipinfo-use-agreement when BetaFeatures disabled	mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo	master	+2 -73
Replace IPInfo use agreement preference strings with constant	mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo	master	+91 -64
Run set preferences hook in GlobalUserOptionsStore	mediawiki/extensions/GlobalPreferences	master	+67 -10
Add LocalUserOptionsStoreSave hook	mediawiki/core	master	+71 -3
Create AbstractPreferencesHandler	mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo	master	+76 -52
Zuul: [mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo] Add GlobalPreferences dependency	integration/config	master	+2 -0
Support 'create' option for 'global' in options API	mediawiki/core	master	+58 -38

Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects
Search...

Status	Subtype	Assigned	Task
			Restricted Task
Resolved		kostajh	T294511 2021 Security Team wikireplicas audit
Declined		None	T284948 Raw IPs of logged-out users disclosed in wiki-replicas
Resolved		Niharika	T324492 Temporary accounts - MVP
Resolved		kostajh	T340895 [Epic] IP Info accommodations for temporary accounts
Resolved		Niharika	T373818 [Epic] Guidance for discovery of IP Reveal feature
Resolved		Dreamy_Jazz	T385701 CheckUser IP reveal guidance dialog: Make dialog only appear once for users on all wikis for a multi-wiki install
Resolved		Dreamy_Jazz	T385698 CheckUser IP reveal guidance dialog: Make IPInfo preference check apply globally if GlobalPreferences extension installed
Resolved	BUG REPORT	Dreamy_Jazz	T298977 Make it possible to set the IPInfo user preference globally
Resolved		• TThoabala	T299368 Unset IPInfo as Global Preference [S]
Resolved		• TThoabala	T300923 Unset IPInfo BetaFeature as global preference
Resolved		• mszabo	T356660 Unset IPInfo as a BetaFeature and make available by default on wikis where temporary accounts are known

Event Timeline

There are a very large number of changes, so older changes are hidden. Show Older Changes

@Niharika: Removing task assignee as this open task has been assigned for more than two years - see the email sent to all task assignees on 2024-04-15.
Please assign this task to yourself again if you still realistically [plan to] work on this task - it would be welcome! :)
If this task has been resolved in the meantime, or should not be worked on by anybody ("declined"), please update its task status via "Add Action… 🡒 Change Status".
Also see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Bug_management/Assignee_cleanup for tips how to best manage your individual work in Phabricator. Thanks!

Tchanders mentioned this in T366618: Use a global preference for accepting the IP reveal agreement.Jun 4 2024, 4:05 PM

Johannnes89 subscribed.Jul 19 2024, 10:04 AM

@Niharika is there anything we want to do with this task?

Niharika mentioned this in T375086: Bring IP Info access permissions to parity with the IP Reveal feature.Sep 18 2024, 2:39 PM

In T298977#10098708, @kostajh wrote:

@Niharika is there anything we want to do with this task?

@Niharika should this be a blocker to major / global pilot wiki deployment?

Sorry for my lack of response here. There are Legal obstacles to resolve before this can be done. It's on their back-burner afaik so we shouldn't assume this as a blocker to anything right now.

Tchanders moved this task from Inbox to Needs Product/Legal/Design/MoveComms on the Temporary accounts board.Oct 21 2024, 11:31 AM

Dreamy_Jazz added a parent task: T385698: CheckUser IP reveal guidance dialog: Make IPInfo preference check apply globally if GlobalPreferences extension installed.Feb 6 2025, 2:31 PM

Restricted Application added a project: Trust and Safety Product Team. · View Herald TranscriptFeb 6 2025, 2:31 PM

We discussed this with @MMoss_WMF , and we're approved to go ahead and make a global preference for IPinfo that works like the global preference for IP reveal.

Dreamy_Jazz renamed this task from Investigate setting IPInfo user preferences as Global Preferences to Make it possible to set the IPInfo user preference globally.Feb 6 2025, 4:30 PM

Dreamy_Jazz updated the task description. (Show Details)

Dreamy_Jazz added a project: Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Tuba (Jan 20 - Feb 7)).

Dreamy_Jazz moved this task from Future / Maybe to Up Next on the IP Info board.

Dreamy_Jazz moved this task from Needs Product/Legal/Design/MoveComms to In progress on the Temporary accounts board.

Dreamy_Jazz moved this task from Priority Backlog to In Progress on the Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Tuba (Jan 20 - Feb 7)) board.

Dreamy_Jazz updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 6 2025, 4:36 PM

Dreamy_Jazz claimed this task.Feb 6 2025, 4:42 PM

Dreamy_Jazz raised the priority of this task from Low to Needs Triage.

Change #1117938 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dreamy Jazz; author: Dreamy Jazz):

[mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo@master] Make IPInfo use agreement preference global

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1117938

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Feb 6 2025, 4:55 PM

Requires T356660: Unset IPInfo as a BetaFeature and make available by default on wikis where temporary accounts are known to be completed as the MediaWiki-extensions-GlobalPreferences associated hooks do not seem to allow modification of the preferences, which means that we cannot unset the agreement preference when disabling the beta feature preference.

kostajh edited projects, added Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Hurdy-Gurdy (Feb 10 - Feb 28)); removed Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Tuba (Jan 20 - Feb 7)).Feb 10 2025, 10:01 AM

kostajh moved this task from Priority Backlog to In Progress on the Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Hurdy-Gurdy (Feb 10 - Feb 28)) board.

Dreamy_Jazz moved this task from In Progress to Priority Backlog on the Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Hurdy-Gurdy (Feb 10 - Feb 28)) board.Feb 11 2025, 12:52 PM

Dreamy_Jazz changed the task status from Open to Stalled.Feb 26 2025, 1:17 PM

Dreamy_Jazz removed Dreamy_Jazz as the assignee of this task.

Tchanders edited projects, added Temporary accounts (Major pilot wiki deployment); removed Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Hurdy-Gurdy (Feb 10 - Feb 28)), Temporary accounts.Feb 26 2025, 2:44 PM

Dreamy_Jazz moved this task from Inbox to Engineering on the Trust and Safety Product Team board.Feb 28 2025, 6:10 PM

Dreamy_Jazz edited projects, added Trust and Safety Product Team (Engineering); removed Trust and Safety Product Team.

kostajh moved this task from Engineering to Engineering on the Trust and Safety Product Team board.Mar 10 2025, 12:44 PM

kostajh edited projects, added Trust and Safety Product Team; removed Trust and Safety Product Team (Engineering).

kostajh changed the status of subtask T356660: Unset IPInfo as a BetaFeature and make available by default on wikis where temporary accounts are known from Stalled to Open.Mar 19 2025, 11:43 AM

• mszabo changed the status of subtask T356660: Unset IPInfo as a BetaFeature and make available by default on wikis where temporary accounts are known from Open to In Progress.Apr 30 2025, 1:31 PM

Dreamy_Jazz changed the task status from Stalled to Open.Apr 30 2025, 2:07 PM

Dreamy_Jazz claimed this task.

Dreamy_Jazz added a project: Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Cozonac (April 14 - May 2)).

Dreamy_Jazz moved this task from Priority Backlog to In Progress on the Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Cozonac (April 14 - May 2)) board.Apr 30 2025, 2:10 PM

Dreamy_Jazz moved this task from Backlog to In progress on the Temporary accounts (Major pilot wiki deployment) board.Apr 30 2025, 2:33 PM

kostajh edited projects, added Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Key Lime Pie (May 5 - May 23)); removed Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Cozonac (April 14 - May 2)).May 5 2025, 6:49 AM

kostajh moved this task from Priority Backlog to In Progress on the Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Key Lime Pie (May 5 - May 23)) board.

Dreamy_Jazz moved this task from Up Next to In Progress on the IP Info board.May 15 2025, 11:23 AM

Change #1146607 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dreamy Jazz; author: Dreamy Jazz):

[mediawiki/core@master] Support 'create' option for 'global' in options API

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1146607

Change #1146607 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/core@master] Support 'create' option for 'global' in options API

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1146607

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.45-notes (1.45.0-wmf.2; 2025-05-20).May 15 2025, 3:00 PM

Stopping active work until patch for T356660: Unset IPInfo as a BetaFeature and make available by default on wikis where temporary accounts are known is clearer, as this heavily depends on the approach taken there.

Change #1148357 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dreamy Jazz; author: Dreamy Jazz):

[mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo@master] [WIP] Create AbstractPreferencesHandler

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1148357

Change #1148369 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dreamy Jazz; author: Dreamy Jazz):

[mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo@master] Replace IPInfo use agreement preference strings with constant

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1148369

Change #1148372 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dreamy Jazz; author: Dreamy Jazz):

[integration/config@master] Zuul: [mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo] Add GlobalPreferences dependency

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1148372

Change #1148372 merged by jenkins-bot:

[integration/config@master] Zuul: [mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo] Add GlobalPreferences dependency

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1148372

Dreamy_Jazz moved this task from Ready to In Progress on the Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Key Lime Pie (May 5 - May 23)) board.May 21 2025, 12:49 PM

Change #1148357 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo@master] Create AbstractPreferencesHandler

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1148357

ReleaseTaggerBot edited projects, added MW-1.45-notes (1.45.0-wmf.3; 2025-05-27); removed MW-1.45-notes (1.45.0-wmf.2; 2025-05-20).May 21 2025, 2:00 PM

Change #1149757 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dreamy Jazz; author: Dreamy Jazz):

[mediawiki/core@master] [WIP] Add LocalUserOptionsStoreSave hook

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1149757

Change #1149767 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dreamy Jazz; author: Dreamy Jazz):

[mediawiki/extensions/GlobalPreferences@master] [WIP] Run set preferences hook in GlobalUserOptionsStore

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1149767

kostajh edited projects, added Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Carrot Cake (May 26 - June 13)); removed Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Key Lime Pie (May 5 - May 23)).May 25 2025, 6:59 PM

kostajh moved this task from Priority Backlog to In Progress on the Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Carrot Cake (May 26 - June 13)) board.

Change #1149757 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/core@master] Add LocalUserOptionsStoreSave hook

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1149757

Change #1149767 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/GlobalPreferences@master] Run set preferences hook in GlobalUserOptionsStore

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1149767

ReleaseTaggerBot edited projects, added MW-1.45-notes (1.45.0-wmf.4; 2025-06-03); removed MW-1.45-notes (1.45.0-wmf.3; 2025-05-27).May 29 2025, 11:00 AM

Change #1152040 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dreamy Jazz; author: Dreamy Jazz):

[mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo@master] Don't unset ipinfo-use-agreement when BetaFeatures disabled

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1152040

Tchanders closed subtask T356660: Unset IPInfo as a BetaFeature and make available by default on wikis where temporary accounts are known as Resolved.May 29 2025, 3:28 PM

Dreamy_Jazz moved this task from In Progress to Needs Review on the Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Carrot Cake (May 26 - June 13)) board.May 30 2025, 1:36 PM

Change #1148369 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo@master] Replace IPInfo use agreement preference strings with constant

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1148369

Change #1152040 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo@master] Don't unset ipinfo-use-agreement when BetaFeatures disabled

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1152040

Change #1117938 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/IPInfo@master] Make IPInfo use agreement preference global

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1117938

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Jun 3 2025, 3:30 PM

ReleaseTaggerBot edited projects, added MW-1.45-notes (1.45.0-wmf.5; 2025-06-10); removed MW-1.45-notes (1.45.0-wmf.4; 2025-06-03).Jun 3 2025, 4:00 PM

Dreamy_Jazz moved this task from Needs Review to Needs QA on the Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Carrot Cake (May 26 - June 13)) board.Jun 4 2025, 4:38 PM

kostajh edited projects, added Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Baklava (June 16 - July 4)); removed Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Carrot Cake (May 26 - June 13)).Jun 16 2025, 6:12 AM

kostajh moved this task from Priority Backlog to Needs QA on the Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Baklava (June 16 - July 4)) board.

LD mentioned this in T397723: examine the hook #mw-prefsection-personal-checkuser-tempaccount.Jun 24 2025, 2:08 PM

Niharika moved this task from Major pilot wiki deployment to Global wiki rollout on the Temporary accounts board.Jul 1 2025, 4:44 PM

Niharika edited projects, added Temporary accounts (Global wiki rollout); removed Temporary accounts (Major pilot wiki deployment).

kostajh edited projects, added Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Cannoli (July 7 - July 25)); removed Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Baklava (June 16 - July 4)).Jul 7 2025, 9:41 AM

kostajh moved this task from Priority Backlog to Needs QA on the Trust and Safety Product Sprint (Sprint Cannoli (July 7 - July 25)) board.

Testing locally across a few different connected wikis, one without temp accounts (so you have to enable IPInfo as a beta feature first). I tested various varieties of global and local settings for the IPInfo opt-in option and different user rights (e.g. full and basic IPInfo access).

I briefly tested on beta as well, including users in the blocked from the IP Information tool group.

I notice that on Special:Contributions, when you use the opt-in checkbox it now sets the option globally.

I notice that after I opt-in globally on a wiki, a log entry is made (just on that wiki) in Special:Log?type=ipinfo stating: <user> globally enabled their own access to IP Information

A couple of (potential) bugs, or things to keep in mind:

If you opt-in globally, then set a local override to opt-out, when you go to Special:Contributions you will see the opt-in checkbox. Checking this and submitting you will see The IP information could not be retrieved. This is because the API request tries to set the global option, but in fact it would need to change the local override to enable IPInfo locally.
If I opt-in globally, I see a log entry saying I enabled IPInfo. If I do a local override opting-out, I see a log entry saying I disabled IPInfo. If I remove the local override, no log entry is made. Because the global option now comes into force, I can access IPInfo even though the last log entry on that wiki states I disabled it.

Test environments:

local docker IP Info 0.0.0 (fbdb3f5) 18:47, 7 July 2025.
https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org IP Info 0.0.0 (fbdb3f5) 18:47, 7 July 2025.

Thanks @dom_walden.

A couple of (potential) bugs, or things to keep in mind:
If you opt-in globally, then set a local override to opt-out, when you go to Special:Contributions you will see the opt-in checkbox. Checking this and submitting you will see The IP information could not be retrieved. This is because the API request tries to set the global option, but in fact it would need to change the local override to enable IPInfo locally.

A fix here could be to remove the local opt-out override when the user opt-in on Special:Contributions. This is quite an edge case so I'm okay with not fixing this.

If I opt-in globally, I see a log entry saying I enabled IPInfo. If I do a local override opting-out, I see a log entry saying I disabled IPInfo. If I remove the local override, no log entry is made. Because the global option now comes into force, I can access IPInfo even though the last log entry on that wiki states I disabled it.

This could potentially be problematic. When the user opts-in globally does the log entry say IPInfo was enabled globally?

In T298977#10982865, @Niharika wrote:

This could potentially be problematic. When the user opts-in globally does the log entry say IPInfo was enabled globally?

Yes. The log entry says <user> globally enabled their own access to IP Information. It is when I remove the local override that no log entry is made, so there is no indication that the user has fallen back to whatever the global value is.

Tchanders moved this task from To triage to In progress on the Temporary accounts (Global wiki rollout) board.Jul 15 2025, 5:30 PM

cc @Niharika do we need to address any of the points raised in QA or can we just close this?

@Niharika , ping on the question above ;)

BOLDly closing this

Eihel unsubscribed.Oct 3 2025, 3:28 PM

Stang unsubscribed.Oct 14 2025, 1:24 PM

	F34914547: special_contribtions_checkbox.png
	Jan 11 2022, 4:22 PM

	F34914554: special_contribtions_permission_error.png
	Jan 11 2022, 4:22 PM

Make it possible to set the IPInfo user preference globallyClosed, ResolvedPublicBUG REPORTActions