content/news/2020-11-28-chanserv-cloak-changes.md

   1 ---
   2 author: edk
   3 date: 2020-11-28T17:00+00:00
   4 slug: chanserv-cloak-changes
   5 title: Changes to ChanServ regarding cloaks
   6 category: announcements
   7 category: technical
   8 ---
   9
  10 freenode offers [cloaks](/kb/answer/cloaks) to our users, which replace one's
  11 hostname or IP address in various places with a project affiliation or lack
  12 thereof. Many of you will be aware that cloaks on freenode [are not offered as a
  13 security measure](/kb/answer/cloaks#cloaks-do-not-effectively-hide-your-ip) and
  14 that various means are available to third parties to see through them.
  15
  16 However, many users acquire cloaks for security/privacy reasons anyway, and
  17 we've taken the decision to close some of the more glaring holes in the
  18 protection they offer. Please do note that cloaks are still not recommended
  19 for hiding a user's IP address.
  20
  21 We have deployed the following changes to ChanServ:
  22
  23  * **AKICK DEL** no longer removes bans against the host behind a cloak
  24  * **WHY** no longers considers host-based access
  25  * **UNQUIET** no longer unquiets nicks that aren't on the target channel
  26
  27 Empirically, these are corner cases that don't often come into play when
  28 managing a channel. However, if you need assistance with something that these
  29 commands used to do, feel free—as always—to contact staff at any time.
  30
  31 While bans against IP addresses continue to apply to cloaked users, we intend to
  32 revise this behaviour in the future due to its privacy implications.
  33
  34 If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask either #freenode or any
  35 available member of staff.