My wiki:Privacy policy

This is a summary of our privacy practices, in plain language. It is not a substitute for the full policy below, which is the version that governs.

We collect the minimum needed to run a wiki: an account (no real name required), basic technical data (IP address, browser, device), and cookies for login and preferences.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not run behavioral ad trackers or third-party ad networks on this site — there is nothing here to monetize your browsing.
What you write and edit is public by design, exactly as on Wikipedia. Your username (not your real identity) is attached to your contributions and stays visible in the page history permanently.
We publish evidence-backed claims about how false and misleading information spread. Where an entry names a real person or organization, that is because the claim and its correction are already part of the public record — see "How we handle people named in our content" below.
We delete or anonymize technical identifiers like IP addresses on a short retention schedule, and we keep account data only as long as your account is active or as legally required.
You can ask us what personal data we hold about your account, correct it, or delete your account, at any time — see "Your rights and choices" below.

Introduction

Bullshitopedia (bullshitopedia.org) is a free, collaboratively edited wiki that documents claims, hoaxes, propaganda, and other forms of deception and misinformation — historical and current — together with the verifiable evidence that debunks them, how each story spread, and how the public record changed over time. We are, deliberately, the mirror image of an encyclopedia: where Wikipedia documents what is known to be true, we document what was falsely claimed, and prove it. Bullshitopedia is operated by The Bullshitopedia Foundation, a nonprofit corporation currently in formation under U.S. law (state of incorporation to be added once finalized). Until the Foundation's formation is complete, the project is operated by its founder in trust for the future Foundation. Once formed, the Foundation will be the data controller for the personal information described in this policy, and this policy will be updated to reflect that. This policy covers bullshitopedia.org, the wiki software that runs it, and any companion apps or APIs we may offer. It does not cover third-party sites we link to as sources or evidence — including Wikipedia, news outlets, court records, and fact-checking organizations — which have their own privacy policies. We built this project on a few privacy commitments that we intend to hold ourselves to as strictly as Wikimedia holds itself to its own:

Data minimization — we collect only what running a secure, abuse-resistant wiki actually requires.
No behavioral advertising — we do not run ad networks, ad trackers, or sell data to marketers, data brokers, or anyone else.
Transparency — this policy says plainly what we collect, why, how long we keep it, and who can see it.
Editorial independence from data — what gets documented on Bullshitopedia is decided by sourcing and evidence, never by what we know about who is asking.

Collection & Use of Information

Information you give us

Account registration: a username and password. We do not require your real name, and we recommend you not use one. Email is optional, used only for password recovery and essential notices, and is never shown publicly.
Content you contribute: entries, edits, talk-page discussion, and uploaded sources or evidence files. This is published content, not private data — see "Your contributions are public" below.
Correspondence: anything you send us directly (support requests, correction requests, abuse reports), kept only as long as needed to resolve the matter.

Information we collect automatically

Technical and log data: IP address, browser type, operating system, referring page, and timestamps for each request to our servers, generated automatically by how the web works.
Cookies: session cookies to keep you logged in, and preference cookies (for example, your display settings). We do not use third-party advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
Action logs: records of edits, page moves, logins, and administrative actions, kept for site security and abuse prevention — the same purpose Wikipedia's CheckUser tool serves.

How we use it

We use the information above to: operate and secure the site; detect and stop vandalism, spam, sockpuppetry, and coordinated abuse; communicate with contributors about their account or contributions; maintain the accuracy and integrity of the historical record we publish; understand aggregate usage so we can improve the project; and comply with legal obligations. We do not use your data to build advertising profiles, and we do not sell it.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to anyone, for any purpose. We share it only in the following limited circumstances:

Legal process: when required by a valid subpoena, court order, or other legal process, or when necessary to comply with the law.
Protecting rights and safety: to investigate or address fraud, security threats, technical issues, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Bullshitopedia, our contributors, or the public.
Service providers: with vendors who host our servers, send our email, or provide similar infrastructure, bound by contract to use your data only to provide that service to us — never for their own purposes.
Aggregated or de-identified data: statistics that cannot reasonably be used to identify you, for example in a transparency report.
With your consent: any other sharing, only if you tell us to.

Your contributions are public

Like Wikipedia, Bullshitopedia is a public project. Entries, edits, your username, edit summaries, and talk-page discussion are published and viewable by anyone, and remain visible in the page history indefinitely, even after an edit is superseded — that permanent record is core to what makes the project trustworthy. This is different from the personal account data described above (email, password, IP address), which is not published.

How we handle people named in our content

Bullshitopedia's purpose is to document false and misleading claims that already exist in the public record — who made them, how they spread, and the verifiable evidence that debunks them. Because of this, our entries will sometimes name real people and organizations: the originator of a claim, public figures it was made about, or journalists and fact-checkers who corrected it. This is editorial and historical documentation, sourced to evidence that is independently verifiable (news reporting, court records, Wikipedia, official statements, and similar sources), not personal data we collect about private individuals for our own purposes — the same distinction Wikipedia and news organizations draw for the people they write about. We do not investigate or publish information about anyone's private life beyond what is already part of the public record and directly relevant to a documented claim. Anyone named in an entry who believes it is inaccurate, unsourced, or unfair may contact us using the details in "Contact us" below. We take correction requests seriously and will review the sourcing; because our record of what was claimed and when is itself the historical record we exist to preserve, corrections are made transparently, through the same public edit history as any other change, rather than by silently erasing what happened.

Protection

Security

We use industry-standard safeguards to protect the information we hold: encryption in transit (HTTPS) for all traffic to the site, access controls that limit who can see non-public data, and restriction of administrative tools (like CheckUser-equivalent access) to a small number of trusted operators bound by a confidentiality policy. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security — but we will notify affected users and regulators as required by law if a breach compromises personal information.

How long we keep information

IP addresses and other technical log data: retained only as long as needed for security and abuse prevention, then deleted or anonymized — our working target is 90 days, in line with standard wiki practice.
Account data (username, email, password hash): kept as long as your account is active, or as needed to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our policies after that.
Content contributions (entries, edits, talk pages): retained indefinitely as the historical record, exactly like Wikipedia's page history — this is a permanent, public archive, not personal data subject to routine deletion.
CheckUser-equivalent and abuse-investigation data: retained only as long as necessary for the investigation it supports.

Children's privacy

Bullshitopedia is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If we learn that we have collected such information, we will delete it. A parent or guardian who believes their child has provided us information may contact us to request its deletion.

Important Info

Your rights and choices

You may, at any time:

Request a copy of the personal account data we hold about you (email on file, account creation date, login history).
Correct inaccurate account data.
Delete your account, or ask us to anonymize the personal data tied to it (your public contributions remain, attributed to your username, exactly as Wikipedia handles account deletion — the edit history is not erased).
Opt out of any non-essential email from us.
Control cookies through your browser settings; note that blocking essential cookies may prevent you from staying logged in.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the GDPR or CCPA, including the right to object to certain processing or to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority. Contact us and we will do our best to honor applicable rights even where not strictly required.

International users

Bullshitopedia is hosted in the United States. If you access the site from outside that jurisdiction, your information will be transferred to and processed there. By using Bullshitopedia, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and to those third parties with whom we share it as described in this policy.

Changes to this policy

If we make a material change to this policy, we will post a notice on the site at least 30 days before the change takes effect, and keep prior versions available for reference, in keeping with the transparency standard set by Wikimedia's own policy change process. Minor clarifications may be made without advance notice.

Contact us

Questions about this policy, correction requests, or requests regarding your data: privacy@bullshitopedia.org. Once the Foundation's formation is complete, its registered agent and mailing address will be added here. Effective date: 23 September 2026 · Version 1.0001