Turkiye: Adopted Guidance on the Right to be Forgotten

On 20 October 2021, the Personal Data Protection Authority of Turkiye adopted its guidance on the right to be forgotten regarding search engines. According to the guidance, individuals can exercise their right to be forgotten either by complaining to the Board of the Personal Data Protection Authority or by making a request directly to the data controller. The search engine has 30 days to decide on such requests. If this request is denied, then a complaint can be lodged with the Board. The guidance lays out assessment criteria to be considered when deciding if the right to be forgotten shall be conformed with or not. The total 13 criteria include but are not limited to the age of the data subject, the harmfulness of the content, the recentness of the information, as well as any possible risks for the data subject.