Report abuse
How to report traffic that came from a SparkUp exit, and what we can do about it.
When someone shares their connection as an exit, the traffic that leaves carries their IP address. If something abusive reached you from an address that turns out to be a SparkUp member, write to contact@sparkupco.net with “Abuse” in the subject.
What to include
- The IP address you saw.
- Date and time, with the time zone or an offset from UTC. Sessions are short, so minutes matter.
- Protocol and destination port.
- What happened, in one or two sentences, and any log lines you can share.
- A contact address we can reply to.
What we can do
- Match the address and time to the exit that served it, and to the account on the other end of that session.
- Suspend or revoke the device or account behind it. A revoked device loses access immediately.
- Restrict an account so it can no longer use community exits.
- Tell the person sharing that a complaint arrived about traffic their device carried, without handing them your details.
What we cannot do
We cannot tell you which sites a user visited, and we cannot produce the content of a connection. The network meters how many bytes moved and records nothing about destinations, so those answers do not exist in our records. We will say so plainly rather than guess.
If you share a connection and a complaint reaches you
Complaints normally land with the internet provider of whoever is acting as the exit, which means you. Forward it to us at the address above and we will help you answer it. It also helps to narrow what your device allows: out of the box a public exit only reaches web ports 80 and 443, and you can restrict it to the domains you name. Your home network is blocked in code and no setting opens it.
Internet providers’ terms and the law on operating an exit differ by country. Check both before you share with strangers. Nothing here is legal advice.