EVALUATION OF THE MEASURES TAKEN AGAINST THE COVID -19 OUTBREAK CAUSED BY THE NEW TYPE OF CORONA VIRUS IN TERMS OF PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION LAW 30 April 2020

The measures taken against the Covid-19 epidemic caused by the new type of corona virus, which have had great effects all over the world and have been effective in our country for a while, are increasing day by day.

In this extraordinary period, the measures introduced will need to be evaluated in terms of the law of personal data protection, considering the public health.

1. LAWFULNESS OF THE PROCESSING OF LOCATION DATA DURING THE EPIDEMIC

First of all, it should be noted that location data is defined in the Regulation on Processing of Personal Data and Protection of Confidentiality in the Electronic Communication Sector.

Location data in the relevant provision; It is defined as the specific data that determines the geographical location of a device belonging to the user of the public electronic communication service and processed in the electronic communication network or through the electronic communication service.

According to the law of protection of personal data, it is clear that the location data is personal data since it has the quality that makes a person identifiable. In order to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic caused by the new type of corona virus, it will be necessary to evaluate whether the mobile applications that provide the location of the people suffering from this epidemic are compliant with the Personal Data Protection Law.

In this context, with the announcement made by the Personal Data Protection Board on 09.04.2020; It is stated that the location data of the people should be processed in accordance with the basic principles and in accordance with its purpose. It was also stated in the announcement that the data should be accessible only by the relevant Public Institutions. Accordingly, if third parties can access this data, it will be against the law of protection of personal data. For this reason, it is important to establish the necessary technical infrastructure.

2. THE PROCESSING OF THE INFORMATION OF PERSONS SUFFERING FROM COVID-19 OUTBREAK BY HEALT INSTITUTIONS

The new type of corona virus has a highly contagious nature, and studies have shown that the disease in question is transmitted from one person to tens of people and this contamination can occur with any contact.

For this reason, in order to prevent the spread of the epidemic, it is very important to identify and control the people who have been exposed to the epidemic. However, data on a person's health are special data under the Personal Data Protection Act, and there are a number of special regulations regarding their processing. Accordingly, the processing of special data of a person is possible only by obtaining the explicit consent of that person.

At this point according the Law; In cases where it is not possible to obtain the consent of the person or the person does not give consent, if the processing of the data is necessary for the protection of public health, this data can be processed without explicit consent. However, in this case, the data; it can only be processed by persons who are obliged to keep secrets or by authorized institutions and organizations.

As a result, it is clear that there is no obstacle to the processing of health data by authorized public institutions within the scope of the measures taken to prevent the Covid-19 epidemic. In addition, Personal Data Protection Board; stated that public health-related messages can be sent to people by authorized public institutions by phone, message or e-mail.

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