In April 2017, the Police Directorate published a circular requiring all taxis in Turkey to be surveilled by CCTV cameras.
After the circular, a hot debate started for the use of CCTV cameras in taxis as the CCTV cameras had sound recording capacity.
After public reaction, the sound recording element was removed and the CCTV cameras that will be installed will only monitor the vehicle without sound recording.
Under Turkish Law, there is no specific regulation for the use of CCTV cameras and general provisions of Civil Code are applied to asses the legality of such use. As a general rule, the use of CCTV cameras are legal under Turkish Law as long as the use of CCTV is in a public space, proportionate and is used for legitimate interests such as security and theft protection.
In order to ensure that privacy rights of individuals are not breached, visible notices shall be placed in the taxis stating that the vehicle is monitored with CCTV cameras.
Inappropriate use of CCTV cameras, use of CCTV for non-legitimate reasons or use of hidden or visible CCTV cameras in private places are illegal pursuant to Turkish Criminal Code and an imprisonment decision of up to 6 years may be imposed (2 X of the maximum 3 year penalty stipulated in first paragraph of Art 134) pursuant to last sentence of Art. 134.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
