November

After a decade of winding its way through the legislative process, Turkey 's new Data Protection Law entered into force on April 7. Although Turkey previously had a few sectoral data protection laws on the books, this is the first time the country has had an omnibus data protection law. There are many questions about the law, including which information is deemed within the scope of the personal data? What are the principles of data processing? What are the Conditions for Data Processing without Consent? What are the Obligations Related to Data Safety? And what are the Crimes and Misdemeanors for Violation of the Law?

"Attorney General, George Brandis says he will move to make it a criminal offence to publish or disseminate ""reidentified"" government datasets, in a move that digital rights groups say could criminalise important research and security work. He added, ""With advances of technology, methods that were sufficient to de-identify data in the past may become susceptible to reidentification in the future,"" he said.

The chair of Digital Rights Watch, Tim Singleton urged Brandis to consult broadly with privacy groups to examine how the legislation would be introduced.

Brandis said the legislation would be introduced in parliament 's spring sitting to amend the privacy laws."

According to psychologist Dr. Nicole Lee, a wellness approach is much more effective at reducing alcohol and drug use than testing in the workplace because it can pick up on other factors that may affect a person's ability to work, such as stress, anxiety, depression, health problems and fatigue. Being aware of workplace difficulties like insufficient training, poor job security and inadequate equipment is important, too, since these can lead to substance abuse problems. Better results have been noted after developing and implementing a comprehensive approach to health and wellbeing, rather than the traditional drug testing policy, Lee said.