EXPLICIT CONSENT IN THE PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA OF REAL PERSON CONSUMERS

Protection of personal data exists in many law branches. In principle, all inter-ventions with personal data are considered illegal. Turkish Constitution consid-ers explicit consent of a person as one of the exceptions of processing of person-al data. Data Protection Act (DPA) provides a framework provision for explicit consent regardless of the personal features of the data subject. If the data subject is a consumer, general principles in consumer law as well as protective provisions provided by related legislation are directly applied. When a costumer’s data is processed, the “imbalance of power” between the customer (data subject) and the processor has to be taken into account. A consumer’s explicit con-sent has to be presumed not to be freely given. Product and service providers have to be put under the obligation to prove that cookies are not personal data with a new legislation in consumer law. Otherwise, cookies have to be considered as personal data.