Protecting your privacy

Contributing here happens in public: issues, pull requests, commit metadata, usernames, translation activity logs, etc. all leave a trail.

For many people that is fine.

Others should plan for that trail. That is especially true if you expect to contribute a lot over time. It is also true if tying this work to your legal name or everyday life could put your safety, job, immigration status, or family at risk.

Ask yourself: if your participation were searchable and stayed online for years, could that cause real harm to you or people close to you? If the answer is maybe or yes, we strongly encourage you to plan for stronger privacy before you contribute.

No account setup is perfect, and this page is not legal or personal security advice. It only helps you decide whether you need stronger separation.

Caution

This guide is not designed to keep you fully protected from government surveillance. Staying fully anonymous online is very hard and requires stricter practices that are beyond the scope of this guide. The steps here will help you form being publicly linked to the project.

Next steps by role

Writers, editors, and coders

Writing and coding contributions go through GitHub. If you want stronger separation, create a dedicated GitHub account and use it only for this work.

Create an anonymous GitHub account

Translators

If you may want to use a new anonymous email address for translations when signing up for Crowding.

• Consider using a dedicated address from a privacy-friendly provider such as Tuta or Mailum.
• Consider using a random username for your Crowdin account.

Coders

If you push code from your own machine, configure Git and SSH so commits and keys do not leak your regular identity—even if you already use a separate GitHub account.

Contributing code anonymously

If you are fine using your usual accounts, continue from Getting started and pick how you want to contribute (writing, translating, or coding).