KVKK art.5/2-d: Processing of data publicized by the person concerned does not require explicit consent.
Conditions of Publicity
- Shared by the person himself
- Publicly
- May be limited to a specific purpose
Typical Public Data
- In the LinkedIn profile business history
- Information disclosed for public duty
- Information on the person's own website
- Photo shared on social media (public)
Processing Limits
- Limited processing for publicity purposes
- If the person has a different purpose when sharing, a third party cannot process it for a different purpose
- Requires interpretation
Controversial Situations
- Social media scraping
- Open profile — use for marketing purposes
- Reprocessing of old posts
- Employee social media monitoring by the workplace
Supreme Court 4. HD
4. HD adopts that the publicity exception should be "limited interpretation", and that if the person has a specific purpose in sharing, it cannot be exceeded.
KVKK Board Decision
KVKK Board believes that the "publicity" claim should not be "interpreted broadly in favor of the company", and that mass data collection, especially through scraping, constitutes a deviation from the purpose
Practical Recommendations
- Provide clarification even when collecting data publicly
- Limit the purpose of collection
- Seek additional legal basis for bulk/systematic data collection
KVKK expert lawyer is recommended.