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ARTICLE · 23 NOVEMBER 2023

The Turkish Data Protection Board's Whatsapp LLC Decision

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The Turkish Data Protection Board announced on 3 September 2021 that it had imposed an administrative fine on Whatsapp LLC after concluding an ex-officio investigation concerning the controller's data processing and cross-border data transfer operations.

TurkeyPrivacy
Selin Ozbek Cittone
Selin Ozbek Cittone
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The Turkish Data Protection Board ("Board") announced on 3 September 2021 that it had imposed an administrative fine on Whatsapp LLC after concluding an ex-officio investigation concerning the controller's data processing and cross-border data transfer operations.

The investigation was triggered following the update announced by WhatsApp LLC on its "Terms of Service and Privacy Policy." The update to the privacy policy had caused tremendous public controversy, mainly due to the request for explicit consent for processing and transferring WhatsApp application users' personal data to third countries. About the update, the company also stated that users who do not give explicit consent would not be able to use the app, and their accounts would be deleted. Following the declaration of Whatsapp LLC, the Board initiated an ex officio investigation on WhatsApp in Turkey.

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