Amendment To The Legislation Of Personal Data Protection 02 May 2019
The Regulation on the Data Controllers Registry, The Regulation On Deletion, Removal And Anonymization Of Personal Data and the Communique On The Procedures And Principles To Be Followed For The Fulfillment Of The Obligation To Inform have entered into force after the entry into force of the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law numbered 6698. Amendments regarding these Regulations and the Communique were published on the Official Gazette dated 28 April 2019. We would like to inform you below about the recent changes in the legislation of Personal Data Protection.
THE REGULATION ON THE DATA CONTROLLERS REGISTRY:
The procedures and principles regarding the Data Controllers Registry are regulated in the Regulation on the Data Controllers Registry (‘’Regulation’’) was published in the Official Gazette dated 30 December 2017 and numbered 30286.The amendments made to the Regulation are presented below for your information;
Regarding point of contact:
1. Real Persons shall also notify their Point of Contacts (Contact Person)
According to article 4 of the Regulation, the data controllers residing in Turkey and the data controller representatives, who are residing outside of Turkey, were to assign their contact person during the application to the Registry. As a result of the amendments, the notification of the contact person is required not only for the legal entities but also for the real persons. Real persons residing in Turkey shall assign their contact person through their data controllers and real persons who are residing outside of Turkey shall assign their contact person through their data controller representative.
2. The information regarding the contact person of the Real Person Data Controller shall be processed in the Data Controllers Registry.
According to Article 4 of the Regulation, only the information regarding the contact person of the legal entity, which is residing in Turkey, should have been recorded in the Registry. Following the amendments made, on behalf of both the data controllers residing in Turkey and the data controllers residing outside of Turkey the information regarding point of contact shall be assigned to the Registry. Thus, on behalf of both real and legal persons, data controller representatives shall register to the Registry.
3. The Name of the Point of Contact in the Data Controllers Registry shall not be disclosed to the public.
According to Article 7 of the Regulation, identity and address of the controller and of his/her representative, if any, and the Registered Electronic Address shall be disclosed to the public. Pursuant to amendments made to the regulation, the name of the contact person shall not be open for public disclosure.
Regarding personal data inventory:
1. Obligation to prepare personal data processing inventory.
Pursuant to amendments made to Article 5 of the Regulation, the data controller, who is obliged to register to the Registry, will be obliged to prepare Personal Data Inventory.
2. Legal reasons should be clearly included in The Personal Data Processing Inventory1.
The content of the personal data processing inventory, which should be prepared by the data controller, is provided under article 4 of the Regulation. Accordingly, in the personal data processing inventory; The purpose of processing activity, the category of the personal data, the recipient group, the data subject group, the maximum retention period , whether or not the personal data is to be transferred abroad , the precautions taken for data security should be included in detail. With the amendment, it is regulated that the legal reasoning should be clearly included in the personal data inventory.
Obligations regarding registration:
1. The total number of employees or annual financial balance sheet criterion counts as an exemption from Registration Obligation.
Articles 15 and 16 of the Regulation regulate personal data processing activities which are not subject to the obligation to register to the VERBIS system. The Personal Data Protection Board may grant an exemption to obligation to register according to the criteria set forth in Article 16 of the Regulation. Pursuant to amendment made to the Regulation, the Personal Data Protection Board will be able to exclude the data controller from the registration and notification obligation by taking into account the total number of employees or annual financial balance sheet of the data controller.
Changes regarding registration information:
1. In case of changes in registration information, such changes should be notified by the data controller.
Pursuant to amendment made to Article 13, in case of changes in registration information, the Data Controller should inform the Personal Data Protection Boardwithin 7 (seven) days from the date on which the change has occurred via VERBIS.
THE REGULATION ON DELETION, REMOVAL AND ANONYMIZATION OF PERSONAL DATA:
Regulation No. 30224 on the Deletion, Destruction or Anonymization of Personal Data was published in the Official Gazette on 28/10/2017. Below we are providing information regarding the changes made to the relevant provisions of the Regulation.
Regarding the period of request for deletion or destruction of personal data:
1. If the data subject requests that the Personal data be deleted or destroyed pursuant to Article 11 of the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 dated 24/3/2016, he/she shall be subject to the periods set out under Article 12 of the Regulation.
Article 11 of the Law No. 6698 on the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law sets out the rights of the natural person (“the data subject”) whose personal data is processed. With the amendment to Article 11 of the Regulation, the right of the data subject to request the deletion or destruction of personal data from the Data Controller has been regulated. Accordingly, in the event that all the conditions of processing the personal data cease to exist, personal data shall be deleted or anonymized upon the request of the data subject. The request of the data subject shall be finalized by the data controller no later than thirty days
COMMUNIQUE ON THE PROCEDURES AND PRINCIPLES TO BE FOLLOWED FOR THE FULFILLMENT OF THE OBLIGATION TO INFORM:
The Communiqué on the Procedures and Principles to Be Followed in the Fulfillment of The Obligation to Inform No. 30356 (‘’Communique’’) was published in the Official Gazette on 10/3/2018. We would like to inform you below about the changes made to the provisions of the Communiqué
Regarding fulfillment of the obligation to inform:
1. The units that process the personal data for different purposes shall not be subject to the obligation to inform.
In the event that personal data is processed for different purposes in different units of the data controller, the provision of the obligation to inform separately for each unit by using physical or electronic media such as oral, written, voice recording, call center is repealed.
___________________
1Same amendment are made to the Regulation on Deletion, Removal and Anonymization of Personal Data.
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