Özet:

The legal branch with the most serious repercussions is, without doubt, criminal law. Indeed, a penal sanction is viewed as a “last resort” (ultima ratio) where other penalties remain ineffective. Therefore, the Turkish legal system has devised criminal penalties due to the importance of data protection. Turkish Criminal Code (TCC) has not had the desired effect in identifying violations with regards to data protection, until the enforcement of Data Protection Law (DPL). This is due to the lack of a specific law defining the terms and institutions encompassing data protection. The lack of a clear definition of personal data has created various issues in terms of “principle of legality” (nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege) and “certainty” (lex certa) within criminal law. DPL has come into force much later than the enforcement of data protection violations under TCC. Therefore, there are various differences between the terms used in DPL and TCC. In this sense, various behaviors which would violate the DPL are not punished by the TCC as they are not provided under the TCC. As the fundamental principle of criminal law is legality, the provisions of TCC must be harmonized with those of the DPL. In order to resolve some of these issues, it would be appropriate to have the criminal provisions also under DPL. If this method is not desired, then the crimes listed out in TCC must be re-written in accordance with the terms and provisions of DPL, under the “principle of legality”.

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