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Privacy and policies

The IETF has developed and operates by processes and policies to ensure its activities align with its goals and objectives. This page provides links to some of those that are most commonly referenced.

Internet Standards Process (BCP 9)
This set of documents describes the process used by the Internet community for the standardization of protocols and procedures. It defines the stages in the standardization process, the requirements for moving a document between stages and the types of documents used during this process.

Working Group processes (BCP 25)
This set of documents describes the guidelines and procedures for forming and operating IETF working groups, managing working group mailing lists, and managing and enforcing a anti-harassment procedures.

Privacy Statement
The IETF is committed to protecting the privacy and security of the personal information of our participants and of visitors to our website. This statement describes how information shared with and collected by the IETF will be used. It applies to the Internet Engineering Task Force ("IETF"), the Internet Architecture Board ("IAB") and the Internet Research Task Force ("IRTF").

Web analytics
This document describes the approach to web analytics for content on www.ietf.org maintained in the Wagtail CMS.

Anti-Harassment Policy
The IETF strives to create and maintain an environment in which people of many different backgrounds are treated with dignity, decency, and respect. This policy documents the expectations about IETF participants’ behavior.

Guidelines for Conduct (BCP 54)
This document provides a set of guidelines for personal interaction in the Internet Engineering Task Force. The guidelines recognize the diversity of IETF participants, emphasize the value of mutual respect, and stress the broad applicability of our work.

Whistleblower Policy
Reports of potential violations of IETF LLC policies, Code of Conduct, or applicable laws are protected by this policy.

IETF Meeting Photography Policy
The intent behind this policy is to balance people's legitimate desire not to be photographed with the IETF's ability to document activities and enable remote participation. The following policy applies to all IETF events, including working group meetings, plenaries, and the hackathon.

Copyright (BCP 78)
The IETF policies about rights in Contributions to IETF documents or activities are designed to ensure that such Contributions can be made available to the IETF and Internet communities while permitting the authors to retain as many rights as possible. This memo details the IETF policies on rights in Contributions to the IETF. It also describes the objectives that the policies are designed to meet. 

Patents, Participation (BCP 79)
The IETF policies about Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), such as patent rights, relative to technologies developed in the IETF are designed to ensure that IETF working groups and participants have as much information as possible about any IPR constraints on a technical proposal as early as possible in the development process. The policies are intended to benefit the Internet community and the public at large, while respecting the legitimate rights of IPR holders. This document sets out the IETF policies concerning IPR related to technology worked on within the IETF. It also describes the objectives that the policies are designed to meet.

IETF Logo and trademark policies
The IETF Trust holds registered trademarks in the IETF name and the stylized IETF “four diamonds” logo in a number of countries. The IETF Trust also claims trademark rights in variants of these marks, such as the IAB’s version of the “diamonds” logo.

IETF LLC transparency report

The IETF LLC publishes regular updates on government requests and disclosures made about the infrastructure we operate and information we maintain.