A new law on the regulation of Internet news portals and websites that allows for the storage of Internet users’ browsing histories has led to concerns that this will lead to the legal profiling of users by the state.
The law, which was accepted in Parliament earlier this month and is currently awaiting approval from the president, includes a measure that allows for the recording of Internet users’ browsing histories and saves them for up to two years. The measure, however, is problematic for many reasons, according to several experts on informatics. The move has raised concerns over the government’s increasing encroachment into people’s private lives as well as into the different mediums through which people can express their social and political opinions.
However, the protection of personal data was one of the most important promises of the government in the constitutional referendum of Sept. 12, 2010.
Lawyer Gürkan Özocak, an expert on informatics, said the new law will pave the way both for censoring of the Internet and a legal ground for the profiling of Internet users. “The law will allow the state to collect data belonging to users’ surfing on the Internet. With the law, it will be very easy for the state to profile users according to their usage of the Internet,” he said.
According to the changes in the new Internet law, the transportation, maritime affairs and communications minister will be able to block websites without first obtaining a court order. In addition, the Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) head will be authorized to block access to a web page on his own initiative in the event there is a request concerning the violation of the right to privacy.
Lawyer Serhat Koç, an expert on informatics, said the recording and storage of Internet users’ browsing histories is against the Constitution in such terms of the presumption of innocence and the protection of personal data. He said the German federal government had passed a law to record and store the histories of phone calls and Internet browsing activities for up to six months, but the law was annulled by the constitutional court that it was against the principle of “confidentiality of communication.” Recalling that Turkey does not have a sound and detailed law for the protection of personal data and information, Koç said allowing the recording and storage of Internet browsing histories may lead to those histories ending up in the hands of people with ulterior motives.
According to the Internet bill, Internet service providers will be fined while Internet access providers will be sentenced to prison if they do not remove content deemed illegal. The bill also includes changes to Article 6, which requires all Internet service providers to become members of an association of Internet access providers that will be established in the future.
Turkey already has strict Internet laws under which thousands of websites have been blocked. More than 40,000 sites are blocked, according to engelliweb.com, which tracks access restrictions. Access to the video-sharing site YouTube was blocked between 2008 and 2010 because it hosted content viewed as insulting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded the modern secular republic just over 90 years ago.
President Abdullah Gül still has a few days to examine the newly accepted Internet law. He will either approve the law or return it to Parliament, asking for a revision. Speaking to the media last week, the president said there are a couple of problematic issues in the law and that he is working on them with a group of jurists.
In May 2011, the president announced on his Twitter account: “In my opinion, there should be no restrictions on freedom. People should be able to surf the Internet freely.”
Lawyer Özgür Eralp, also an expert on informatics, refuted a claim by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government that several European countries and the US possess Internet laws similar to the one it has pushed forth. “This is not correct. If they claim to the contrary, they [the government] have to show us those laws,” he said, and added that the law gives TİB the authority of courts to block access to websites and pages.
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