Constitutional Court Decision On Fingerprint Registration System Is Published! 26 April 2022
The Constitutional Court made a new decision regarding tracking employees' shifts by the employers in the working life, with fingerprint, face, palm, or retina scanning methods. The decision of the Constitutional Court, dated 10.03.2022, stating that tracking employees' shift with the fingerprint registration system violates the right to protection of personal data, was published in the Official Gazette dated 19 april 2022 and numbered 31814.
|
To summarize the flow of events; the applicant, who works as a civil servant in the Mayor's Office of Söke, applied to the institution, where he works, for the removal of the tracking shift with fingerprint registration system. Upon the rejection of the application by the institution, he filed a lawsuit in the Administrative Court for the removal of the aforementioned administrative action. |
|
The Administrative Court decided to accept the case and then, the institution appealed the decision. The District Administrative Court decided to dismiss with prejudice and accept the appeal. |
|
Then, the applicant applied to the Constitutional Court, claiming that his right to request the protection of his personal data within the scope of the right to respect to privacy has been violated due to the tracking employees' shift with the fingerprint registration system. |
|
Under Article 20 of the Constitution, personal data can be processed if it is stipulated by the law or if the data owner has consented explicitly. Concordantly, in Article 6 of the Law on Protection of Personal Data No. 6698 (“the Law”), some data groups are given a high-level of importance and they can only be processed if the data owner gives the explicit consent or if it is stipulated in another law explicitly. The Constitutional Court emphasized that for the consent to be given to be qualified as "explicit consent" it is necessary to inform the data owner in advance about the scope, purpose, limits, and consequences of the personal data to be processed; there must be a legitimate purpose for processing; there must be no other method for the aim of achieving the legitimate aim with less interference on the protection of personal data and the data should be processed finitely with the purpose. Therefore, it is underlined by the Constitutional Court that even if the processing of personal data is carried out based on the consent of the relevant person and the data is processed for a specific purpose, proceeding by obtaining explicit consent will not legitimize excessive collection of data and, in the light of the principle of proportionality, it will not be compatible with the principle of requesting minimum level data from the data subject. Thus, it has been clarified that the opinion of the Personal Data Protection Authority on this matter is in the same direction. |
|
When the Constitutional Court investigated the relevant legislation, it seems there is a provision for the administration to control the working hours of civil servants and the starting and ending times of daily working hours under the Civil Servants Law No. 657. However, there is no method regarding how to ensure this control. Similarly, in the Municipal Law No. 5393, the authority to conduct the municipal organization has been given to the mayor, but the scope of using this authority has not been determined. In this case, it is concluded that there is no explicit regulation in other laws regarding the processing of biometric data within the scope of tracking employees' shifts. |
|
So, the Constitutional Court decided that the right to request the protection of personal data within the scope of the right to respect to privacy was violated due to the processing of sensitive personal data by the administration without a legal basis, and showed its negative approach to processing of biometric data for purposes such as tracking shifts explicitly. |
|
You can find the full text of the decision at the link below: |
|
https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/ eskiler/ 2022/ 04/ 20220419-7.pdf |
Other News
-
9.9.2023
Focus On Digital And Green Transformation: Türkiye's Medium - Term Program Published.
The Medium-Term Program (2024-2026), prepared by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and the Presidency of Strategy and Budget, was approved and published in Official Gazette No. 32301 dated September 6th, 2023.
-
1.9.2023
New Regulations Are On The Way
Some amendments were made to the Regulation on the Trade of Second Hand Motor Land Vehicles ("Regulation") and published in the Official Gazette dated 31 August 2023.
-
24.8.2023
Auction Sale Of The Unsafe Buildings: What Are The New Regulations?
Pursuant to Law No. 6306 on the Transformation of Areas under Disaster Risk (known in practice as the "Urban Transformation Law"), the identification of unsafe buildings, unsafe areas and reserve building areas, the demolition of unsafe buildings, the planning to be made, the determination of the value of the immovables to be subject to transformation, Article 15/A titled "Sale Procedure by Auction" of the Implementation Regulation of the Law No. 6306, which was put into force to determine the procedures and principles regarding the agreements to be made with the beneficiaries and the aids to be provided, the buildings to be rebuilt and other applications within the scope of the Law No. 6306, has been amended.
-
22.8.2023
The Personel Data Protection Board's ("Board") Decision No. 2023/692 ("Decision") On A Private Healtcare Organization Was Published On The Authority's Website
In the notification petition submitted to the Institution in the specific case, in summary; it is stated that during the filling of the form to make an appointment on the website of the health institution (data controller), it is obligatory to give consent to the processing of the data of the applicants in order to be informed about the services and announcements of the health institution and to contact people for this purpose, the appointment process is not completed unless the consent is given to the promotion box, and in this way, the service is conditioned on explicit consent by the data controller.
-
16.8.2023
"Dangerous" Amendment On Social Media Video Content Producers
As it is known, in Article 3 of the Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331, the concept of "hazard class" is defined as "the hazard group determined for the workplace in terms of occupational health and safety, taking into account the nature of the work performed, the substances used or emerging at every stage of the work, work equipment, production methods and forms, working environment and conditions and other issues related to the workplace" and in Article 9 of the same law, it is regulated that the hazard classes of a workplace will be determined by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, taking into account the actual work performed in the workplace.
-
7.4.2023
he New Procedure For Attachment In The Residence And the Regulation on Excessive Attachment Entered Into Force.
On 05.04.2023, the Law on the Amendment of the Execution and Bankruptcy Law and Certain Laws entered into force after being published in the Official Gazette, and an article titled "Attachment in the Residence" was added to the Execution and Bankruptcy Law and it was regulated that attachment cannot be made in dwellings without a judge's decision.
-
7.3.2023
What Are The New Legal Regulations On Victims Of Delayed Pension Age?
With the legal regulation dated 25.08.1999, the age requirement for retirement was introduced and retirement conditions were rearranged.
-
3.1.2023
What Are The New Determinations Under Article 1530 Of The Turkish Commercial Code ?
In the Official Gazette numbered 32061 published on 02.01.2023, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey announced the Communiqué on the Default Interest Rate to be aplied for Late Payments in the Supply of Goods and Services and the Minimum Expense Amount that can be claimed for the Collection Costs of Receivables ("Communiqué").
-
3.1.2023
Interest Rates To Be Applied In Rediscount And Advance Transactions Were Determined.
On 31 December 2022, new rates were announced by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey with the Communiqué on Determination of Interest Rates to be applied in Rediscount and Advance Transactions in the Official Gazette numbered 32060.
-
29.12.2022
Top 10 Deals Of The Year 2022
-
20.12.2022
What Are Increasing Monetary Limits And Changing
1- Law On Consumer Protection Monetary Limits In The Regulation On Consumer Arbitration Committees Increased In the Official Gazette dated 16 December 2022 and numbered 32045; 68 of the Law on the Protection of the Consumer No. 502 and Article 6 of the Regulation on Consumer Arbitration Committees ("Communiqué") on Increasing the Monetary Limits has been published and entered into force.
-
7.12.2022
Chain Stores in the Food Retail Sector Are Obliged to Share Data.
The Regulation on Amending the Regulation on the Principles and Rules to be Applied in Retail Trade (hereinafter referred to as "Regulation") has been published and entered into force.
-
6.12.2022
Will "Obligation To Obtain And Submit A Surveyor's Report'' To Be Introduced In Real Estate Sales?
On 25 October 2022, the "Presidential Annual Program for 2023" (hereinafter referred to as the "Program") prepared by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and the Presidency of Strategy and Budget with the Presidential Decree No. 6294 was announced in the Official Gazette repeating No. 31994.
-
5.12.2022
What Are The Changes Introduced by the Decision Regarding The Determination Of The Companies Subject To Independent Audit?
As it is known, the independent audit, which is important in terms of informing both the public and the shareholders about the financial status of the company, is obligatory for companies to be determined by the President in accordance with the Turkish Commercial Code (TCC) No. 6102.
-
15.9.2022
What Are The Provisions That Have Been Postdated In The Distance Contracts Regulation?
The "REGULATION ON AMENDING THE REGULATION ON THE REGULATION ON DISTANCE CONTRACTS" (Hereinafter referred to as "Regulation") was published in the Official Gazette dated 14 September 2022, and in accordance with this Regulation, the effective dates of some regulations made on August 23, 2022 have been amended.
