Protection of personal data in terms of Criminal Law

In international documents, in the preamble of the 135 th article of the Turkish Penal Code (TPC) and in national legislations of the countries which will be examined within the scope of this work, the concept of ?Personal Data? has been defined as any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual. The importance of the protection of personal has first emerged in the United States in 1950s and 1960s with the arrival of the first computers and the beginning of personal data storage and transfers. The main development on personal data has started in 1970s. In most countries legislative studies have started in mid-seventies and laws protecting personal data have been adopted between mid-seventies and nineties. In Turkey, contrary to most of other countries, a special law that protects personal data does not exist. In order to reduce and/or prevent all these problems and in order to punish and dissuade of those, who commit such actions, arrangements were made and new offences and penalties related to personal data were brought up in the Turkish Penal Code. Articles protecting personal data under Turkish Penal Code are cited in the Second Chapter entitled ?Offenses Against Individuals? and the Ninth Section entitled ?Offenses Against Privacy and Secrecy of Life?.