Sustainability In KVKK Compliance: Beyond A One - Time Compliance Approach

With the acceleration of digitalization, personal data has become a strategic asset for institutions and companies; accordingly, the lawful processing, protection, and management of such data has gained critical importance both in safeguarding individual rights and ensuring corporate sustainability. Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data sets forth the fundamental principles and obligations regarding the processing of personal data and imposes comprehensive compliance responsibilities on data controllers. Compliance with the KVKK is no longer merely an obligation aimed at avoiding administrative fines; it has also become an indispensable element for protecting corporate reputation, establishing customer trust, and effectively managing legal risks.

In practice, compliance in the field of personal data protection is often perceived by companies as a "project" completed through the preparation of certain documents, the creation of data inventories, and the drafting of privacy notices. However, KVKK compliance is not a one-time obligation; rather, it is a dynamic compliance discipline that constitutes an integral part of corporate sustainability and requires continuity.

Records made or documents prepared once are subject to continuous change in parallel with a company's organizational structure, business processes, technologies used, and the interpretation of legislation. Employee turnover, new business models, digitalization, cloud systems, artificial intelligence applications, and cross-border data transfers may render existing compliance measures inadequate over time. Therefore, a one-time data inventory exercise and the consents obtained from relevant individuals do not, by themselves, ensure permanent compliance and may become invalid, incomplete, or misleading in the face of changes in business operations, technology, or legislation.

For this reason, the objective of KVKK compliance projects should not be limited to abstract information such as "the number of administrative fines that may be imposed," but should instead encompass regular risk analyses, periodic updates of policies and procedures, employee awareness trainings, the continuous updating of technical and administrative measures, and ongoing monitoring of applicable legislation. Otherwise, practices that appear compliant "on paper" but have lost their practical relevance may give rise to risks of administrative fines and reputational damage. So, what should companies do in this regard?

Practical and Actionable Checklist

• Do you have an obligation to register with VERBIS?
• Has your VERBIS registration been completed previously?
• If there have been changes within the scope of your VERBIS notifications in the past 12 months, have these changes been duly updated and recorded?
• Are privacy notices, explicit consent forms, and KVKK-related customer/employee information texts up to date and accessible?
• Is the data inventory (what data is processed, where it is stored, who has access to it, and for what purpose) up to date?
• Are data retention and destruction policies documented in writing, and are deletion/ anonymization protocols implemented?
• Are internal access controls, authorization management, password/two-factor authentication mechanisms, and regular access audits in place?
• Have contracts related to data transfers (domestic and cross-border) and compliance conditions been reviewed?
• Is there an incident response plan, notification flowchart, and training in place to be activated in the event of a data breach?
• Have employees received KVKK awareness training, and is such training repeated periodically?
• Are data subject request processes (access, rectification, deletion requests) defined and operational?
• Have KVKK-compliant agreements been executed with third parties acting as data processors? (such as cloud service providers, call centers, accounting firms, etc.)

The questions listed above and the responses provided on a company-specific basis will primarily guide you in identifying risks that need to be addressed as a priority. However, we would also like to emphasize that these criteria are of a general nature, and that a study capable of leading to a definitive conclusion should be conducted jointly by the employees managing KVKK processes within the company and professionals specialized in the field of KVKK.

Conclusion and Assessment

Fulfilling obligations related to the protection of personal data does not merely mean formal compliance with legislation for data controllers; rather, it necessitates the establishment of a living compliance mechanism based on the principles of accountability, foreseeability, and continuity.

In this context, the completion of a KVKK compliance project does not mean that a data controller is automatically exempt from future violations or non-compliance with updated legislation. On the contrary, any change in business processes, organizational structure, information technology infrastructure, or data processing purposes requires a reassessment and revision of existing compliance measures. Failure to fulfill this obligation may lead not only to administrative fines but also to multifaceted legal consequences, including Board decisions, data breach notifications, judicial liabilities, and reputational damage.

In conclusion, KVKK compliance is not a destination but a discipline that must be continuously monitored and improved. From this perspective, even if a KVKK compliance project has been completed, conducting periodic risk assessments by professionals specialized in the field of KVKK will protect companies from potential administrative fines and reputational risks.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.