Legal Glossary

Personal data is any information that identifies a natural person, either directly or when combined with other information. It is regulated in Article 3/1-d of Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data and is based on a person whose identity is identified or identifiable. Name, identity number, contact details, photographs, voice recordings and location fall within this scope. Information relating to legal entities and data that has been anonymized in such a way that it cannot be linked to any person remain outside the protection of the Law.

Profiling is the automated processing of a person’s personal data in order to evaluate or predict characteristics such as work performance, economic situation, health, preferences, reliability, behavior or location. The Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (KVKK) contains no definition of profiling; the definition most commonly relied on is found in Article 4(4) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The closest provision in Turkish law is the right to object to an adverse result arising exclusively from automated analysis (KVKK Article 11/1-g).