Turkey’s social security institution to sell citizens’ information with draft bill

Hacer Boyacıoğlu ANKARA

A new regulation will pave the way for the sale to private companies of citizens' personal information gathered at Turkey’s Social Security Institution (SGK).

The regulation, which will be added to the labor safety draft bill, will allow the sharing of the information of 74 million Turkish citizens to other state institutions and selling this information to private companies.

Labor Minister Faruk Çelik has defended the regulation, stressing that the authorities will not be able to give the information to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

Çelik said that while the MİT could legally request data from the SGK, the SGK was unable to share such information, as the law does not allow this.

“We cannot even give MİT the information they request. The Family Ministry also requests data for the income test, but we cannot provide them [with the necessary data] either,” he said.

Stating that only "anonymous information" would be able to be sold to privately owned companies, such as pharmaceutical companies, Çelik stressed there would be no personal information sharing.

According to the regulation, the SGK will be able to give away personal information and information that is holds the status of confidential business information to various state institutions for those institutions to “execute their duties.” Intangible rights and personal information that are made “anonymous” will be shared free of charge with state institutions, civil servants and academics for the purposes of research, planning and statistics, and sold to real and legal entities.

The selling of personal and confidential business information to private companies will also require the individual’s approval, and the information will not be sold to third parties without the individual’s written consent, according to the new regulation.

Commenting on selling information to privately owned companies, Çelik said that if the state does not regulate the sale, companies “would try to reach them anyway.”

“If [the state] does not provide a way to access the data in a legal way, companies would find illegal ways. How else can you avoid this?” he said.

“If we regulate this properly, we will have certain rules and we will be able to control it,” Çelik added.