Turkish DPA’s Analysis of Right to be Forgotten within the context of Search Engines

The Turkish Data Protection Authority (“DPA”) has recently published a guideline. The subject of this guideline is removing the names and surnames of individuals and the results of searches made through search engines from the index. The guideline clarifies the exercise of the right to be forgotten within the context of search engines, within the framework of the Decision of the Personal Data Protection Board dated 23/06/2020 and numbered 2020/481.

The guideline covers the following topics:

• The right to be forgotten and its development,

• The status of the right to be forgotten in international and domestic law,

• Claim methods regarding the right to be forgotten of the data subject.

In Turkey, the “Right to be Forgotten” is not expressly regulated by law, but there are tools for carrying through this right.

 

Search engines have a high power of control of data. Considering this issue, it needs to be determined the procedures and principles.

In the Decision of the Personal Data Protection Board dated 23/06/2020 and numbered 2020/481, the criteria to be taken into account in the evaluation regarding the removal of the names and surnames of the persons and the results of the searches made through search engines from the index and to be examined on each concrete case were specified.

These criteria are:

• The person concerned to play an important role in public life

• The subject to be a child

•  The information to be accurate

• The knowledge of one's working life to be relevance

• The information to have  the nature of insulting, humiliating, slander about the person concerned.

• The fact that the information to be  a special quality personal data

• The information to be up-to-dateness

• The information to cause of prejudice about the person

•The Information to pose  a risk to the person

• The state of publishing the information by the person himself.

• Content's coverage of data processed within the scope of journalistic activity

• Legal obligation to publish information

• The information to be related to a criminal offense

 

The right to be forgotten can only be claimed by the person whose personal data is processed. Within the framework of the right to be forgotten, access to data on the Internet cannot be completely prevented. Within the scope of the right to be forgotten, content removal is not carried out regarding the data accessed from the internet. The information in question does not disappear completely on the internet. It is possible to access the relevant content in the results that appear when the search engines are searched with different words related to the subject.

 

Before filing a complaint with the Authority within the framework of the right to be forgotten, the data subjects must apply to the data controller who processes their data, according to Article 13 of the Law titled "Application to the Data Controller".

 

According to Article 14 of the Law titled "Complaint to the Board", in cases where the application is rejected by the data controller, the response is found insufficient or the data subject is not answered, it is possible to file a complaint with the Board within thirty days from the date on which the data controller learns the answer and in any case within sixty (60) days from the date of application.

 

You can reach the guideline here.

 

Kind regards,

Zumbul Attorneys-at-Law

info@zumbul.av.tr