Privacy and intellectual property issues started to gain importance in Turkey in recent years. This importance revealed the necessity of new legal regulations and amendments on the existing ones. Accordingly, the amendments started from the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey (Constitution) and the provisions related to “privacy of individual life”, “inviolability of the domicile” and “freedom of communication” under the main heading of Privacy and Protection of Private Life of the Constitution were amended in 2001. Protection of personal data was also added to the Constitution in 2010 under the heading of Privacy of Individual Life.

Meanwhile, data protection was put on the agenda of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Assembly), as part of the process for becoming a Member State of the European Union. The Draft Law on Data Protection was drafted but it has not entered into force yet.

The amendments in the Constitution could not generally satisfy the social needs and drafting a new constitution became a requirement as a result of social and political developments. In this context, the Constitution Conciliation Commission (Commission) consisting of the members from the four political party groups in the Assembly was established in 2011.

After almost two years long negotiations in the Commission, 48 articles agreed on were published unofficially. One of the mentioned 48 articles is related to privacy and privacy in internet. The article headed “The Right of Access to Information and Freedom of Information” will be as:

1- Everyone has right to access freely to information, internet and other electronic communication media. The state shall make necessary regulations for the effective and fair enjoyment of this right.

2- Secrecy of communication through internet is fundamental. Everyone has the right to demand protection of his/her personal data he/she shares through internet; to demand respect for privacy of his/her thoughts and opinions.

3- The right to access to the internet and electronic communication media shall be regulated by law pursuant to; the right of privacy and domesticity and protection of personal data, the freedom of communication, the right to access to information, the freedom of expression and press and contract, the constitutional principles regarding the protection of minors against sexual exploitation.

According to the above-mentioned provision, it is planned to protect sharings through internet and in this way it would be possible to prevent the unjust treatment arising from the infringing of the privacy. Accordingly, prevention of the use of the personal information shared through internet, including the sharings through social media, without the consent of the person will be a constitutional right. Thus, it would be possible to prevent fake accounts on the social networking sites.

The most interesting point in the provision is protection of the privacy of thoughts and opinions shared through internet. Yet, restrictions on social media and cooperation with social media corporations in order to obtain sharings and the person’s details has become a current issue as a result of the social and political matters which was especially strengthen with social media. Apart from the sharings which constitutes crime, a dilemma shows up since it is planned to protect the privacy of the sharings through internet while it is negotiated to bring restrictions to the social media.

As a result, the protection of freedom of information is a positive development for Turkey. However, the reflection of the mentioned provision and the laws which will be regulated based on the provision is ambiguous for all of us.