# Problematic IP address fields

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/problematic-ip-address-fields/83785>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Tags:** gdpr, privacy\
**Created:** [25.Март.2018 07:06:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/problematic-ip-address-fields/83785 "2018-03-25T07:06:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 23

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**Author:** ![RGJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/rgj/32/523185_2.png) [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)\
**Post date:** [21.Апрель.2018 08:58:23 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/problematic-ip-address-fields/83785/23 "2018-04-21T08:58:23Z")

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> [@ChrisBeach](#):
>
> If IPs have been stored for users without their consent, they absolutely need to be scrubbed from our database and no longer stored for anonymous visitors.

They can be stored, but no longer than necessary for a legitimate purpose.

For rate limiting, there is a legitimate interest and this period is pretty short.

For deduplicating link clicks, there is a legitimate interest but they need only to be stored in Redis for 24 hours. [I don’t see any reason](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/app/models/topic_link_click.rb#L107-L112) at all to keep them in the database.

I don’t see the purpose or a legitimate interest for keeping IP addresses in search logs or incoming links.

In contrast to the opening post I do think the topic\_views and user\_profile\_views are problematic. After all, Redis is [already deduplicating IP addresses](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/app/models/topic_view_item.rb#L19-L49) so there is no need to store the IP address longer than ` topic view duration hours`.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/problematic-ip-address-fields/83785)._