Classification of digital evidence in criminal procedure law and emerging problems

Developments in the digital world greatly facilitate the lives of modern people. Today, we see that digitalization is being integrated into life with increasing momentum in many areas, from banking transactions to shopping, from communication to education. Especially considering the speed of digital transformation, there is a need to revise ethical and legal studies and regulations in parallel with these developments. Since digitalization is so integrated into the flow of daily life, there is a "digital trace" left by modern people in different areas many times every day. Although it is not possible to ignore this digital transformation legally, it is clear that the main quest in criminal trials is to reach the material truth. In terms of criminal procedure law, any data that does not constitute a violation of the law and is obtained by lawful means has the quality of being evidence. Therefore, considering that every aspect of life is gradually evolving into digital and the digital traces left by humans, it has become inevitable to use digital data as evidence. The lack of a clear legal regulation regarding the use of digital evidence in Turkish law and the fact that digital data are open to manipulation due to their nature also create situations that may cause doubts about proof. In our study, firstly, the characteristics of proof and evidence in criminal procedure law will be examined, then the types of evidence and information on digital evidence will be discussed. In the third part of the study, the evaluation of evidence in Turkish Criminal Procedure Law and in the last part, the evaluation of digital evidence in Turkish Criminal Procedure will be discussed.