According to Art. 11 of the Regulation on the Registry of Data Controllers, a contact person must be appointed if the data controller is a legal entity located in Türkiye and is not exempt from registration with the Turkish Personal Data Protection Authority. Additionally, if the data controller is not located in Türkiye, it must appoint a representative who must be either a Turkish legal entity or a Turkish citizen.
The data controller’s contact person or representative is responsible for managing communications with the Turkish Personal Data Protection Authority and data subjects. Data controllers remain liable for compliance with the Protection of Personal Data Law regardless of the appointment of a contact person or a representative.

Pursuant to Art. 5 of Law No. 5651, all data stored by hosting providers, which are defined as real persons or legal entities who provide and operate the systems which host services and content, must be made available to the Information and Communication Technologies Authority upon request, without the need for a court order. Failure to comply can result in fines ranging from TRY 10,000 (approx. USD 1,300) to TRY 100,000 (approx. USD 12,800).

According to Art. 28 of the Personal Data Protection Law, institutions and third parties are compelled to hand over personal data to intelligence agencies and police when it is needed to process personal data within the scope of preventive, protective and intelligence activities carried out by public institutions and organisations authorised by law to ensure national defence, national security, public security, public order or economic security.
The only exceptions to this requirement are health data and sexual life data, which can only be processed by natural persons who are under an oath of secrecy or by authorities for the purposes of protecting public health, preventive medicine, medical diagnosis, the provision of care and treatment services or planning, and the management and financing of healthcare services. This exception is provided in Art. 6 of the Personal Data Protection Law.

According to Art. 6 of Law No. 2937, intelligence services are entitled to request any type of document/information from individuals and private/public entities while performing their duties. It is not clear whether a court order is needed.

The Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed by means of Such Publications (Internet Law) establishes a safe harbour regime for intermediaries for copyright infringements. According to Art. 4 of the law, a content provider is not responsible for the link to the content that belongs to someone else. However, if it is clear from the format of the presentation that the content in question it links to is embraced and intended to be reachable, the content provider is responsible according to the general provisions. Furthermore, hosting providers are only liable for removing unlawful content that they host, provided that they are notified, pursuant to Articles 8 and 9 of the Internet Law, that is, ensuring that they act according to a notice-and-takedown procedure.

The Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed by means of Such Publications establishes a safe harbour regime for intermediaries beyond copyright infringements. According to Art. 4 of the law, a content provider is not responsible for the link to the content that belongs to someone else. However, if it is clear from the format of the presentation that the content in question it links to is embraced and intended to be reachable, the content provider is responsible according to the general provisions.

It is reported that Türkiye imposes an identity requirement for SIM registration. Anyone wanting to purchase a SIM card has to provide their national ID card or a passport in case of foreigners to activate a new prepaid SIM card. In addition, SIM cards cannot be activated without biometric identification

Certain regulations mandate that financial institutions retain both their primary and secondary systems within the borders of Türkiye, prohibiting the systematic transfer of such data abroad for banks, financial leasing and factoring companies, publicly traded companies, pension investment funds, and other entities regulated by the Capital Markets Board. These regulations include the Regulation on Internal Systems and Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process of Banks, whose Art. 11(4) stipulates that Turkish banks must host their primary data systems—comprising the infrastructure, hardware, software, and data necessary for recording and utilising all information required to conduct banking activities and meet legislative obligations—within Türkiye. Likewise, their secondary data systems, which serve as backups, must also be stored domestically. Additionally, Art. 23 of Law No. 6493 requires system operators to maintain information systems and their backups domestically. A system operator is defined as a legal entity responsible for the day-to-day functioning of payment or securities settlement systems, holding the requisite licence for such operations. This provision further compels online payment services, such as PayPal, to retain all data in Türkiye for a minimum of ten years. The law specifies: “The system operator, payment institution, and electronic money institution shall be required to keep all documents and records related to matters within the scope of this Law for at least ten years within the country, in a secure and accessible manner.”
Additionally, under Art. 73 of the Banking Law, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Authority (BRSA) is empowered to prohibit the sharing or transfer of customer data or bank secrets with third parties outside Turkey. The BRSA may also mandate that banks maintain their information systems and backups within Turkey, based on assessments related to economic security.

According to Art. 9 of the Personal Data Protection Law, data cannot be processed or transferred abroad without the individual's explicit consent. Consent will not be required if the transfer is necessary to exercise a right or is required by law, and either:
- sufficient protection exists in the transferee country or
- if the data controller gives a written security undertaking and Türkiye’s Data Protection Board grants permission.
It is reported that these conditions are very restrictive, so in some cases, data controllers have made their own assessment of whether personal data will be adequately protected based on the criteria used by the Turkish Personal Data Protection Authority to assess adequacy.

Art. 51 of the Electronic Communications Law stipulates that the transfer of traffic and location data abroad is permitted with the data subject's explicit consent.

Türkiye has not joined any agreement with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders.

Law No. 6698 provides a comprehensive regime of data protection in Türkiye. It outlines a framework similar to that of the European Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC). Secondary legislation in Türkiye, in the form of regulations and communications, has been evolving in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (GDPR). Law No. 6698 establishes the Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK) and the Board as the supervisory authorities responsible for its enforcement. The KVKK mainly serves an administrative role, while the Board is the decision-making organ within the KVKK. The KVKK was established as an independent regulatory authority with institutional and financial autonomy and is responsible for ensuring personal data protection and raising awareness in this respect.

Art. 23 of Law No. 6493 requires that "the system operator, payment institution and electronic money institution shall be required to keep all the documents and records related to the matters within the scope of this Law for at least ten years within the country, in a secure and accessible manner". The article also specifies that "The information systems and their substitutes, which are used by the system operator to carry out its activities shall also be kept within the country".

Türkiye lacks a comprehensive framework in place that provides effective protection of trade secrets, but there are limited measures addressing some issues related to them. Trade secrets can be protected under the Unfair Competition Provisions of the Turkish Commercial Code and the Turkish Criminal Code No. 5237. Art. 56 of the Commercial Code allows persons who have suffered damages or who may be exposed to the risk of such damage to apply to the competent court for the following:
- Declare whether the defendant's action is unfair;
- Prevent unfair competition;
- Removal of the material condition caused by the action of unfair competition; rectification of statements if wrong or misleading statements commit the unfair competition; and destruction of the means used in the unfair competition action, provided that it is unavoidable to prevent the infringement;
- In the case of a faulty action for compensation of damages, there is a reference to the conditions set forth by Art. 58 of the Turkish Code of Obligations.

It is reported that passive infrastructure sharing in Türkiye to deliver telecom services to end users is mandated, and it is practised both in the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.