Precedent Decision from KVKK Regarding Cryptocurrencies!

Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies continue to be popular in our country, as well as all over the world.

At this point, while legal regulation studies on cryptocurrencies are continuing, a new decision regarding cryptocurrencies has come from the Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK).

According to Habertürk’s news, KVKK decided that the processing of identity and photo information of the crypto money platforms of their members is within the scope of their obligations under the Law on Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime.

This decision of the KVKK is based on a complaint made by a person that the cryptocurrency platform asked for his identity information when signing up.

According to the incident, the person who made the complaint requested to increase his membership level on a cryptocurrency platform of which he is a member. This cryptocurrency platform requested a photo of the front and back of the person’s ID and a passport photo.

At this point, the person, who argued that personal data was requested excessively and disproportionately by the crypto platform, applied to the KVKK requesting an investigation within the scope of the Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 and deletion of the processed information.

KVKK made a precedent decision and decided that the data request and processing was legal, pointing out that the cryptocurrency platform has an obligation under the Law No. 5549 on the Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime regarding the processing of personal data.

The Board stated that the applicant’s request for deletion of personal data should first be forwarded to the crypto platform, which is the data controller, and decided that there was no action to be taken.

*This is not investment advice.