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When editing my user profile (name, date of birth, etc.), how can I tell which information can be seen by other users (publicly visible) and what is only used by the system (and how it's used)?

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The easiest way is to open up your profile in an incognito browser session.

Things that are visible to everybody:

  • website
  • location
  • how old your account is
  • when you were last on the site
  • how many times someone viewed your profile
  • the "About me" section

Things visible to ♦ moderators (of the site where your profile belongs to) only:

  • real name*
  • email*
  • how many days you visited the site (and your current consecutive visits streak)
  • your IP address*
  • all the names you used in the last 90 days

*mods have to click a link to see this information, the act of which is also logged.

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  • I assume moderators can also see the calendar when clicking the value of "visited"?
    – Arjan
    Oct 7, 2012 at 9:35
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    @Arjan Yes. Or at least it works for me and I hope it's not an employee quirk. :)
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Oct 7, 2012 at 16:17
  • Can moderators see the "old" real name even after the user changes it in their profile?
    – Masked Man
    May 28, 2018 at 12:32
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    @MaskedMan Display names yes, real names no.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    May 30, 2018 at 18:59
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    real name + email + IP. How can you detect if a mod used this information to target a user off-site? Assuming the mod took precautions to make the "button click" look justifiable.
    – user
    Dec 31, 2019 at 13:14
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    @Fermiparadox, the mods have to sign an agreement before getting their diamonds. Misusing PII can potentially lead to law suits against the mods. (not to mention that even accidentally revealing PII is enough to fire a mod, and has happened once in the past)
    – Bhargav Rao
    Jan 1, 2020 at 22:50
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    @BhargavRao although what you mention is a good measure, it's not enough. My point is, if a mod decides to misuse PII (e.g. to de-anonymize, dox, harass, etc.) and doesn't brag about it, there is no way to prevent or detect it.
    – user
    Jan 2, 2020 at 9:32
  • @Fermiparadox, if the victim complains to Stack Exchange, they can immediately see as to who last retrieved the PII and take the required legal action.
    – Bhargav Rao
    Jan 2, 2020 at 10:00
  • If someone asks a question in an incognito window, is the IP still recorded?
    – user512163
    Aug 19, 2020 at 20:33
  • @fasterthanlight Yes. We don't know if you're asking from an incognito window or not, and you still have to either log into an account or create an "unregistered" one to post (in which case you'll lose access to it once you close the incognito window since it's entirely cookie-based).
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Aug 19, 2020 at 21:18
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    Could you add what CMs can see please?
    – Ekadh Singh - Reinstate Monica
    May 13, 2021 at 16:11

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