OpenFile AlbaniaPrivacy
Written in plain language on purpose. Most of this site's readers are in Italy, Germany, Greece, the UK and the US, so the GDPR applies to us; the short version is that we run no tracking cookies, no advertising trackers and no analytics company, and we will delete anything you ask us to delete.
Who is responsible
OpenFile Albania is run by one person in Tirana. It is not a company, it has no employees, and it sells nothing on this website. For anything on this page — a correction, a removal request, a question — write to info@openfilealbania.com. You will get a reply within 48 hours.
What we record when you read a page
No tracking cookies. No JavaScript trackers. No Google Analytics, no Meta Pixel, no advertising or profiling of any kind. The only cookies are the functional ones a form or the lookup box needs to work (a session and a security token); they identify no one and are not used for tracking, so there is no cookie banner.
For each page load the server writes one row containing: the path you requested, the referring website if your browser sent one, whether you arrived from a link tagged with a campaign, your device type (mobile, tablet or desktop), the primary language your browser asks for, and a visitor identifier.
That identifier is a one-way hash of your IP address, your browser's user-agent string, today's date and a secret only this server holds. Your IP address is not stored — only the hash, and because the date is part of it, the same person reading tomorrow produces a different identifier. It exists so we can tell "forty people read one page" from "one person read forty pages", and it cannot be reversed or used to recognise you on any other website.
Legal basis: legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) in knowing whether anyone reads this archive, using the least identifying method we could design. These rows are kept for two years and then deleted.
What other companies see
Three things on this site are fetched from someone else's server, which means that server sees your IP address:
- Map tiles — the background map on the homepage comes from Esri (
arcgisonline.com). - Fonts — the two typefaces are currently loaded from Google Fonts. We intend to serve them from this server instead, which will end that transfer.
- Email — if you write to us or send the report form, Mailgun handles the delivery.
We do not embed Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or any share widget, and nothing on this site reports back to a social network when you read it.
If you send us something
If you fill in the report-request form, or leave an email address to be notified about a project, we store what you typed and your email address so we can answer you. We use it for that and nothing else: no newsletter you didn't ask for, no list anyone can buy, and it is never shown to a developer, an agency or a seller. Write to us and we delete it, same day.
Searches typed into the lookup box are logged — the text you typed, whether we had a match, and the same daily visitor hash described above — because unmatched searches are how we decide which street to walk next. Don't type anything into that box you would not want kept; it is a search box for project and developer names, not a message to us.
Names on the archive
Albanian construction permit boards are public documents, bolted to the fence of the site they describe. They name the developer company, the contractor, and the architect, structural engineer, site supervisor and technical director — with their professional licence numbers. We transcribe what the board says, because who repeatedly signs the buildings in a city is a matter of public interest, and we publish it as printed, with no comment on anyone's competence, character or work. Where a person (rather than a company or studio) is named, their name appears only on their own profile page, which search engines are told not to index; project pages show just their licence number and a link to that profile.
Two things we deliberately do not do. We never publish the permit board photograph itself, because those boards also list the private individuals who own the land. And we never publish a negative claim about any named person or company — not on any public page, ever.
If you are named on this archive and would rather not be, write to info@openfilealbania.com and say so. You do not have to give a reason, and you do not need a lawyer. We will reply within 48 hours and tell you plainly what we can remove and what is already a matter of public record elsewhere.
Your rights
You can ask us what we hold about you, ask for it to be corrected, ask for it to be deleted, or object to us holding it at all. One email is enough. If we ever refuse, we will tell you why, in writing, rather than going quiet.
Changes
This page is dated. If what we do changes, this page changes with it and the date changes too.