> Besides Wikipedia, content from the Wikimedia Foundation such as Wikisource, Wikiquote, Wikivoyage, Wikibooks, and Wikiversity are also available for offline viewing in various different languages. [0]
> Users first download Kiwix (or a browser extension), then download content for offline viewing with Kiwix. [1]
> Our main storage backend became entirely unreachable. For the average user that meant not being able to access the library and download files, and for us that meant not being able to connect to it and see what was wrong. [2]
Maybe some odd photos landed on WikiMedia which then got automatically synced to Hetzner's servers and then triggered some alarms.
I can't judge about Hetzner deleting the data, but them not attempting to really get in touch with the Kiwix team -- after all they should know that they are trying to do some good in this world -- is a really horrible move. In the same category as Google blocking access to user's accounts without any word, or German companies suing security researchers for notifying them about a security flaw in their systems.
> Users first download Kiwix (or a browser extension), then download content for offline viewing with Kiwix. [1]
> Our main storage backend became entirely unreachable. For the average user that meant not being able to access the library and download files, and for us that meant not being able to connect to it and see what was wrong. [2]
Maybe some odd photos landed on WikiMedia which then got automatically synced to Hetzner's servers and then triggered some alarms.
I can't judge about Hetzner deleting the data, but them not attempting to really get in touch with the Kiwix team -- after all they should know that they are trying to do some good in this world -- is a really horrible move. In the same category as Google blocking access to user's accounts without any word, or German companies suing security researchers for notifying them about a security flaw in their systems.
Shame on Hetzner.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwix#Available_content
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwix#Description
[2] https://mastodon.social/@kiwix/113622081750449356