Explore with privacy.
The atlas does not use advertising trackers. Geolocation is requested only when you choose “Wall near me”. In the current interface, coordinates are used in your browser to sort nearby records and are not stored by the project.
Counting visits
When switched on, the site counts page views itself, with no outside analytics service. Each page you open sends one small message to our own server containing only the page address and, if you arrived from another website, that website’s name (not the page you came from). We add one to a daily total for that page and referring site. We do not store your IP address, your browser details, a cookie or any identifier, so a view cannot be tied to you or to any other view. We do not count visits from robots, or from browsers that send Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control. To block floods, your IP address is briefly hashed for rate limiting and deleted with the other counters after two days; it is not kept with the totals. The daily totals themselves hold no personal data and are deleted after 13 months.
Counting errors
When switched on, the site also records faults, again with no outside service. If a page breaks in your browser, it sends one small message to our own server: the kind of page (for example “a record page”, not which one), the name of the error, its message with email addresses, long numbers and token-like strings removed and cut short, the first few lines of the technical trace, and whether your browser is Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari or another, and whether it is a mobile one. The same is recorded when our server hits an error. Each fault is added to a daily count. We do not store your IP address (not even hashed), your full browser details, a cookie, an identifier, or anything you typed, so a report cannot be tied to you. Nothing is sent from browsers that send Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, and robots are ignored. To block floods, your IP address is briefly hashed for rate limiting and deleted with the other counters after two days; it is not kept with the reports. Error records are deleted after 30 days.
Map services
Map tiles, styles and fonts load from OpenFreeMap (tiles.openfreemap.org), which draws on OpenStreetMap data and uses Cloudflare as its content network. Your browser contacts them directly and shares normal network information such as your IP address. OpenFreeMap says it sets no cookies and does not normally keep IP addresses. The location list works independently of the map.
Contributions
When you submit a location, your name, email, and submitted evidence are stored privately for editorial review. They do not automatically appear on the public atlas. Do not include sensitive personal information in historical descriptions.
The submission form uses Cloudflare Turnstile to keep out automated spam, so your browser contacts Cloudflare while the form is open. To limit repeated submissions, the project keeps a one-way hash of your IP address with each submission and for rate limiting; the address itself is not stored.
How long it is kept
Your name, email address and the IP hash are removed one year after we decide on your submission, or two years after you sent it if it was never decided, whichever comes first. The historical information you sent, such as the location, description and sources, may be kept and used in the atlas. The short-lived counters used for rate limiting are deleted after two days.
Letters to institutions
To check what the atlas says, we sometimes write to the town hall, museum, archive, school or company believed to hold a piece of the Wall, at the general address it publishes. We do so on the basis of our legitimate interest in recording this history accurately (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Replies, and the name and address of whoever sends them, are kept privately for our editorial work. What we publish is attributed to the institution, never to a member of its staff. If an automated assistant is used to help read a reply, its text is sent to Anthropic, which processes it on our behalf.
The correspondence is deleted one year after the conversation is closed (an unanswered letter is closed after 60 days), or two years after the last message if it never is; automatic replies and delivery failures after 90 days. If you would rather we did not write to you again, reply saying so or email us: we keep the address on a do-not-contact list for as long as that is needed to respect your wish, and use it for nothing else.
Your data and how to reach us
Where Is The Wall is a Berlin Experiences project. For questions, or to ask for a copy of what we hold about you, a correction, or its deletion at any time, email info@whereisthewall.com. Include the reference number shown after you submitted, if you have it.