The Personal Data Protection Board's Announcement Ended The SMS Practice Of Stores.

The Personal Data Protection Board (“KVKK”) ruled with its announcement dated 17.12.2021 that the processing of personal data at stores by sending a verification code to data subjects via SMS during their shopping is contrary to the legislation. KVKK examined the complaints regarding stores that send a verification code to data subjects via SMS during their payment transactions before the cashier following their shopping where cashier requests a verification to complete payment or to update information, but following the transaction, commercial electronic messages related to the store activities are sent to data subjects. KVKK determined that data subjects have not been informed by the data controller with the SMS in which the verification code is sent or before sending such SMS SMS and/or the data controller misleads the data subjects by requesting the verification code on the grounds that it is required to complete the payment or to update information, however with