Assessment of the Decision Summaries Published by the Personal Data Protection Board on 3 August 2018

5 August 2018Murat Volkan DülgerCommentary

Introduction

This work was written in Turkish. The summary on this page is a translation; the citation gives the original title in parentheses.

The right to the protection of personal data, having become the subject of legislation and of special laws enacted on the matter, is today accepted as a new branch of law. However, this branch of law still contains uncertainties as regards its scope, its content and, in particular, the manner of its application. For these uncertainties to be removed and for a law of personal data protection in the full sense to be regarded as having formed, disputes on the subject must come before the judicial authorities so that case law develops, and the bodies entrusted with protecting data must issue statements and decisions and share them with the public.

In this context, the publications of the Personal Data Protection Board, which is provided for by legislation and entrusted with this matter, the guides it has prepared to aid understanding of the subject, its communiqués and above all its decisions are of great importance. An assessment of these decisions will show which points data controllers must attend to with care, in which areas breaches are concentrated, and how and on what basis a breach is to be assessed in a specific case. With this in mind, on 20 April 2018 the Board had published summaries of eight of the decisions it had rendered in the specific cases brought before it. By sharing some of its subsequent decisions with the public for a second time on 3 August 2018, it sought to answer, to a certain extent, the questions that come to mind on the subject.