Django - Retrieve Unauthenticated User object - django

Question

As the titles states, I have a need for users to retrieve User information of different users, whether or not they're authenticated.
I have a 'profile' template with some logic to either display static user information (for public) or editable user information (for the user it belongs to).
PROBLEM: The condition in my template is returning "true" - the User object appears to be authenticated BUT it's not. If I navigate from that page (profile) no user logged in.
I'm fairly new to Django. Am I not retrieving the User object correctly in my view.py?
views.py
def GetProfileById(request, userid):
try:
user = User.objects.get(pk=userid)
except User.DoesNotExist:
return HttpResponseRedirect('/')
try:
user_profile = user.get_profile()
except Exception:
return HttpResponseRedirect('/')
context = {'user': user, 'user_profile': user_profile}
return render_to_response('profile.html', context, context_instance=RequestContext(request))
profile.html
{% if user.is_authenticated %}
<form id="form-about" class="form-horizontal" action="{% url update-user-profile %}" method="POST">
{% csrf_token %}
<p>{{ about_form.first_name }}</p>
<p>{{ about_form.last_name }}</p>
<p>{{ about_form.birthday }}</p>
<p>{{ about_form.profession }}</p>
<button class="btn btn-primary" type="submit">Save</button>
</form>
{% else %}
<p><b>Name:</b> {{ user.first_name }} {{ user.last_name }}</p>
<p><b>DOB:</b> {{ user_profile.birthday }}</p>
<p><b>Profession:</b> {{ user_profile.profession }}</p>
<p><b>Member since:</b> {{ user.date_joined|date:'Y-M-d' }}</p>
<p><b>Last login:</b> {{ user.last_login|date:'Y-M-d # H:i' }}</p>
{% endif %}

Answer 1

It seems like, what you're trying to do is, if a user is currently logged in, you want to show a form that lets them update a profile.
So the problem is:
In your view, you're setting user to a User object from the database.
This object does not represent or contain information about whether the current user is logged in. It's just the record from the database.
You want to check request.user, which represents the User object for the user who requested the web page.
So in your template, change:
{% if user.is_authenticated %}
to:
{% if request.user.is_authenticated %}

Answer 2

I believe you're confusing user and request.user. The former is the user being displayed, the latter is the user that is currently logged in, or an AnonymousUser if no one is logged in.
You want to display that form if the user that is currently logged in and the user being displayed are the same, right? Then just change
{% if user.is_authenticated %}
To
{% ifequal user request.user %}