The Turkish state is Internet-illiterate. It has no interest in the progress of the Internet economy.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013 was recently announced. The academy decided to award the prize jointly to Martin Karpluss, Michael Levitt, and Arieh Warshel for using computer models to successfully simulate chemical experiments. The prize winner scientists had laid the foundation for the computer modeling of complex chemical processes. In the past, Nobel Prize winner chemists studied at their desks using a pencil and a piece of paper, or at the blackboard with chalk. Today, technological chance has been rapidly paving the way for scientific development. Information and communication technologies (ICT) change each and every aspect of the world as well as scientific studies. And the change will gain pace. Turkey’s state, on the other hand, is still unaware of the Internet.

Turkey has 89 law texts which mention the word Internet. You can check them on the Parliament’s webpage. The word is used in three different meanings. First, as a database on which exam results and announcements will be made. Second, as a mail box where auction and tax forms, etc., should be sent. Third, as a potential offensive weapon. The Turkish state, which knows the best of everything, sees the Internet as a potential tool for insult, not one for complex actions. And here are the results: the Turkish state is Internet-illiterate. It has no interest in the progress of the Internet economy. Turkey trails behind the rest of the world in transferring Internet technology in daily lives, and especially in developing the relevant legislation. Among the 24 countries which account for 80 percent of the world’s digital economy, only 3 have yet to design a legislative framework on the protection of personal data: South Africa, Thailand, and Turkey. Turkey’s draft law has been waiting in the Parliament since 2008. Turkey indeed is an odd country. It is competing with the world on yesterday’s issues, completely ignorant of what is going on around it today. So let me tell the story to you once again.

Very soon, your regular supermarket will make specific discounts exclusively for you. Thanks to credit cards, data on what you buy, and where you buy them have already been collected. In addition, security cameras record you while you are shopping and paying at the checkout. And there are city surveillance cameras, of course. Soon enough, those cameras will recognize you via iris recognition systems and link this information to the credit card data on your consumption patterns. It will be possible even to estimate where you are going or planning to go as soon as you leave your house. In addition, data on your health condition, and work and family lives will be collected. The books you have bought are recorded somewhere. And it is not difficult to follow with whom you keep company. How about your counterpart assessing your performance while you are speaking in a meeting, just by checking his or her mobile phone if you are lying or not based on your gestures? This is the world around the corner. All thanks to the ICT.

Let’s replay the scene. For starters, the ICT facilitates compilation of data. Second, data storage becomes easier and cheaper. Third, data processing gets easier. Now you no longer have to have expensive programs on your computer. Instead, you will use such programs from a central data storage facility via service procurement. Can you imagine how useful this could be for SMEs? Fourth, anyone that has the authority will have easy access to the gigantic dataset generated via the ICTs. Fifth, those who can access the dataset will be able to analyze every aspect of anyone’s live: from the promotion policies of supermarkets to research on the Higgs boson, the design of new medication and the location of new playgrounds. Of course, as such opportunities unfold, the state has to restrict and regulate firms’ breach of individual privacy. The law on personal data protection is critical for defining the code of conduct in this new world. Big data, cloud computing and e-commerce will be the billion-dollar sectors of the digital economy. Turkey has blown money to promote innovations. Everyone is making up fashionable strategies. But no one is actually interested in solid infrastructural activities. The draft law on personal data protection has been waiting codification in the Parliament since 2008. And odd country it is.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 15.10.2013