Data controller
The controller responsible for the processing described in this policy is Albania United (a US 501(c)(4) social-welfare organization, application pending), operating publicly as Shqipëria Bashkuar.
Address: 418 Broadway, STE N, Albany, NY 12207. Privacy email: [email protected]. General email: [email protected].
Who this policy applies to
This policy applies when you interact with us, including when you:
- visit our site or fill in the form to join;
- sign up for emails;
- apply as a volunteer, ambassador, or founding-team member;
- submit a statement of support;
- contact us or take part in an activity we organize;
- use a personal referral link.
This policy doesn't cover external sites you may open from our links. They operate under their own policies.
What data we collect
When you join, we may collect your name, email, country and (optionally) city, Albanian citizenship status, ID-document status, willingness to register to vote from abroad, interest in other roles, and your consents and the date you gave them.
When you apply as a volunteer, ambassador, or team member, we may also collect your phone number, languages, professional profile, experience, areas of expertise, availability, application answers, and any conflicts of interest you choose to declare.
When you give public support, we may collect your name, organization, role, location, photo, statement, public profile, and consent to publish.
Don't send us identity documents, health, or financial data unless we explicitly request it for a defined purpose through a secure method.
Technical data
When you use the site, our systems or technical providers may process your IP address, device and browser type, operating system, language, pages visited, date and time, referring page, basic actions, cookie identifiers (when allowed), and security data.
This data is used for operation, security, troubleshooting, and — when you've given the necessary consent — for analyzing site usage.
Data that may reveal political opinions
Participating in a civic initiative, answering questions about political ties, or making a public statement of support may reveal a person's political opinions.
Where this category is specially protected by law, we process it only with a valid basis, such as your explicit consent. We don't use it for personalized political advertising, commercial profiling, selling lists, supporting a party or candidate, or automated decisions with legal effects.
Why we use it (purposes)
We use data to administer your registration, confirm your email, send updates, inform about voting from abroad, measure the reach of support, administer referrals, review applications, communicate with volunteers and ambassadors, verify and publish endorsements with consent, organize activities, protect the site and database, prevent abuse, and meet legal obligations.
We won't use data for a new, incompatible purpose without notifying you and, where required, obtaining fresh consent.
Our legal bases
Depending on the data and where you live, we may rely on consent (for registration, emails, data revealing political opinions, publishing your name/photo/statement, and analytics cookies), our legitimate interests (security, fraud prevention, basic administration, defending claims), steps before a relationship (reviewing applications), and legal obligations.
You can withdraw consent at any time; withdrawal doesn't make prior processing unlawful.
Emails and unsubscribing
We may send confirmation emails, updates, information about registering and voting from abroad, reasonable calls to action, communications about your application, and important privacy or security notices.
You can unsubscribe from non-essential emails via the link in every message or by writing to us. Even after unsubscribing, we may send messages directly tied to a request you made, security, an active application, or legal obligations.
Who we may disclose to (technical providers)
We don't sell personal data. We may make it accessible to providers that help us with hosting, the database, forms, sending emails, storing documents and photos, security, analytics, technical support, and accounting. These providers may use the data only for the services they perform for us.
- Hosting: Cloudflare
- Database: Convex
- Emails: Resend
- File/photo storage: Convex
- Analytics: PostHog
- Security/antispam: Cloudflare
We may also disclose data when required by law, to respond to a valid order, or to protect the safety and rights of people. We don't give the member list to parties, candidates, or campaigns for their use.
International transfers
The organization and some of our providers may operate in the United States or countries other than where you live. For this reason, data may be transferred and processed outside your country.
Where the law requires special measures for international transfers, we use valid mechanisms such as adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses, or other approved arrangements.
When you choose to appear publicly
If you apply as a leader or ambassador or give public support, we may ask permission to publish your name, photo, role, organization, general location, biography, statement, and profile link. None of this is published without your clear consent.
Understand that information published online can be copied or shared by people we don't control. You can ask us to remove it from our site, but we can't guarantee deletion of copies made by others.
Cookies and analytics
We use essential cookies for the site to function, to store privacy preferences, for security, and for forms. We may use analytics to understand which pages are visited, where visitors come from at a general level, and where errors occur.
Analytics or other non-essential cookies are enabled only when consent is required and you give it. You can change your choices via the “Cookie preferences” link.
Security
We use technical and organizational measures suited to the nature and risk of the data, which may include encrypted transmission, access control, strong authentication, least-privilege limits, security monitoring, and data minimization.
No system is fully secure. If we discover a data breach, we'll act according to applicable legal obligations.
How long we keep data
We don't keep all data for the same period; retention depends on the purpose, the length of the relationship, your consent, and legal requirements.
- Membership and communications: until you unsubscribe or request deletion, plus up to 30 days for backups and logs.
- Unsuccessful applications: 12 months, unless you consent to be contacted for future roles.
- Public endorsements: until you withdraw consent or the site no longer needs them.
- Technical and security logs: up to 18 months.
When data is no longer needed, we delete, anonymize, or isolate it per our processes.
Your rights
Depending on where you live and the applicable law, you may have the right to learn whether we process your data, get a copy, correct inaccurate data, request deletion, restrict or object to processing, withdraw consent, receive your data in a usable format, and complain to a supervisory authority.
Residents of some jurisdictions (e.g. the EU/UK and Texas) may have additional rights under local law.
How to exercise your rights
Write to [email protected] and include your name, the email address you used, the type of request, and enough information to locate your record. We may ask you to verify your identity before we provide, change, or delete data.
We'll respond within the period required by applicable law. When a request can't be fully met, we'll explain why.
Children
Our site and forms are not aimed at children under 16. We don't knowingly collect data from children under this age without the required authorization.
If you believe a child has given us data inappropriately, write to us so we can review and delete it where required.
Automated decision-making
We don't use solely automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects for you. We may use automation to send emails, categorize interests, prevent spam, and route an application to the relevant team.
Decisions on selecting ambassadors, volunteers, or team members involve human review.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when forms, systems, providers, or the law change. The date of the latest version appears at the top. When a change is significant, we may notify you by email or through a visible notice on the site.
Contact and complaints
For privacy questions, requests, or complaints, write to [email protected] (or by mail to Albania United, 418 Broadway, STE N, Albany, NY 12207).
If you live in the EU or UK and believe your rights haven't been respected, you can complain to the competent data-protection authority where you live or work.