'Data privacy' warning.

Burhan Sili, President of the Alanya Tourism Operators Association and Member of the Board of Directors of the Turkish Hoteliers Federation, stated: "According to the Law on the Protection of Personal Data, the deadline for registration in the 'Data Controllers Registry Information System' is December 31, 2019."

The deadline for registration under the law concerning the storage of information, both physical and digital, which affects millions of people and thousands of businesses, is approaching at the end of the year. Burhan Sili, President of the Alanya Tourism Operators Association (ALTİD) and Member of the Board of Directors of the Turkish Hoteliers Federation (TÜROFED), stated that companies must complete their KVKK (Personal Data Protection Law) procedures and register with the Data Controllers Registry Information System (VERBİS) by January 1, 2020, to avoid administrative and legal penalties. He added, "To prevent any inconvenience, the law should be carefully reviewed, and the procedures should be followed to ensure the application is made."

What is KVKK?

The purpose of Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data (KVKK) is to protect the privacy of individuals and their fundamental rights and freedoms in the processing of personal data. This law applies to all facilities, regardless of size. The law and its supplementary regulations cover the processing of personal data, general principles, processing conditions, the deletion, destruction, or anonymization of personal data, the transfer of personal data, the obligations of the data controller to provide information, obligations related to data security, application, complaint, and the register of data controllers, the procedures and principles of inspection, offenses, violations, the institution for the protection of personal data, its duties, the board for the protection of personal data, the board's operating principles, organizational structure, personal data protection experts and assistants, provisions related to the personal rights of employees, exceptions, and temporary articles.

WHAT IS THE LAST DATE FOR REGISTRATION?

According to Article 16 of Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data, legal entities and individuals who process personal data are required to register with VERBİS before commencing data processing. The deadlines provided by the Personal Data Protection Board for registration with VERBİS for data controllers are as follows:

For data controllers who are legal entities or individuals with an annual number of employees exceeding 50 or whose annual financial statements total more than 25 million TL, the date for commencing the registration obligation is October 1, 2018. The period granted for registration is 15 months, and the final date for registration is December 31, 2019.

For legal entities and individuals who are data controllers and whose primary activity involves the processing of special category personal data, and who have an annual number of employees less than 50 and a total annual financial balance less than 25 million TL, the registration obligation began on January 1, 2019. The period for registration is 15 months, and the deadline for registration is March 31, 2020.

Data controllers who are required to register in the Data Controllers Registry are obligated to fulfill their registration and notification requirements in VERBİS in order to avoid any penalties as stipulated in Article 18 of Law No. 6698.