Recent Development
The Personal Data Protection Board’s (“Board“) decision no. 2020/315 regarding associations, foundations and unions exempt from the Data Controller’s Registry (VERBIS) registration requirement (“Decision“) was published in the Official Gazette on May 9, 2020. The Board’s announcement on the decision is available online here (in Turkish).
What’s New?
According to the Board’s decision no. 2018/32 dated April 2, 2018, associations established under the Associations Law, foundations established under the Foundations Law and unions established under the Unions and Collective Labor Agreements that process its employees, members and donors’ personal data only in accordance with the relevant legislation and limited to the purposes defined for their areas of activity are exempt from registering with the VERBIS.
The Board made changes to the wording in the abovementioned decision after receiving numerous information requests regarding the scope, interpretations and discrepancies concerning the exemption. Further to the Board’s new Decision, the wording was amended to “associations, foundations and unions resident in Turkey that process personal data in accordance with the relevant legislation and purposes defined for their areas of activity”. The wording “processing its employees, members and donors’ personal data” was removed. In this respect, associations, foundations and unions processing personal data in accordance with their area of activity and relevant legislation are exempt from VERBIS registration requirement, regardless of which data subject groups’ personal data they process.
Conclusion
The Board continues to provide guidance on data controllers’ obligations under the Turkish Data Protection Law. The Board expanded the scope of the VERBIS registration exemption for associations, foundations and unions. According to the Decision, associations, foundations and unions resident in Turkey that process personal data in accordance with the relevant legislation and purposes defined for their areas of activity are exempt from registering with the VERBIS.
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