# Anonymous Users When 'Login Required' checked

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymous-users-when-login-required-checked/182265
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 5, 2021, 11:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymous-users-when-login-required-checked/182265 "2021-03-05T23:44:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Tikune](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/tikune/32/212250_2.png) [@Tikune](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tikune)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2021, 11:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymous-users-when-login-required-checked/182265/1 "2021-03-05T23:44:23Z")

</div>

We noticed in the analytics we’ve had anonymous users from time to time even though the site is configured to require authentication to read content on the site, disallowing anonymous access.

As the contents of our forum are intended to be secure, could someone from Discourse please confirm that only authenticated users can access our forum?

I took several screenshots to share, but can’t find a way to upload them. I think you get the idea without them though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![awesomerobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/awesomerobot/32/142900_2.png) [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2021, 11:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymous-users-when-login-required-checked/182265/2 "2021-03-05T23:59:15Z")

</div>

Yeah we expect some anonymous traffic even on private sites. A couple answers from a previous topic:

> [@Seeing anonymous user and crawler traffic, even though site is private](https://meta.discourse.org/t/seeing-anonymous-user-and-crawler-traffic-even-though-site-is-private/181051/2):
>
> that crawler traffic is likely from crawlers hitting `community.yoursite.com/login`

> [@Seeing anonymous user and crawler traffic, even though site is private](https://meta.discourse.org/t/seeing-anonymous-user-and-crawler-traffic-even-though-site-is-private/181051/3):
>
> In addition to what Kris wrote, there will also be an anonymous request for your site’s login page or home page at the beginning of each SSO login request.
> 
> Your site’s TOS and Privacy pages can also probably be accessed by anonymous users.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2021, 8:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymous-users-when-login-required-checked/182265/3 "2021-03-07T08:06:46Z")

</div>


