Video CVs and personal data (KVKK)

Your video, meaning your image and your voice, is personal data. In this article, we briefly explain what to share and what not to share in your video CV, how to choose who can see your CV, and your rights under Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data (KVKK).

Why is a video CV personal data?

Any information relating to an identified or identifiable person is personal data. A video showing your face and voice identifies you directly, so your video CV is protected under KVKK. The same goes for your name, phone number, email address and résumé details.

On PlayCV, your videos and photos are processed only with your explicit consent and only for job application purposes. Which data is processed, for what purpose and for how long is set out in the KVKK privacy notice, and the scope of the consent you give for your video is set out in the explicit consent text.

What don't you have to share?

The purpose of a video CV is to show that you're right for the job. You don't have to share the following information, which is unrelated to the job:

Your marital status, pregnancy or plans to have children
Your religious beliefs, denomination or political views
Your health or disability
Your place of birth, home address or ID number

Some of this information, such as religion, political opinions and health data, is also specially protected under KVKK as special categories of personal data. The ban on discrimination applies not only after you're hired, but also at the job posting, application and hiring stages (Law No. 6701 on the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Türkiye).

On PlayCV, disclosing a disability is optional; to apply to jobs for people with disabilities, you need a disclosure and a disability certificate. Your disclosure and certificate don't appear on your public video CV; for a job for people with disabilities you apply to, the company only sees your disclosure and whether PlayCV has verified your certificate, not the certificate itself.

İpucu: Don't forget the background: documents, family photos, envelopes with your address on them or a computer with its screen on can lead you to share information without realizing it. If your phone adds location information to videos, you can turn off location tagging in your camera settings.

Who can see your CV?

You choose the visibility of each CV, and you can change it at any time:

Public: your CV appears in the candidate pool; visitors who aren't signed in can also watch it, and companies find it in their searches.
Verified companies only: in the candidate pool, your CV is visible only to the teams of companies verified by PlayCV; visitors and other candidates can't see it.
Hidden: your CV doesn't appear in the candidate pool or in searches; only the companies you applied to with it can see it.

Whichever option you use, the companies you applied to can still see your application. In your profile settings, you can also choose companies you don't want to see your CV, such as your current employer. Your phone number and email address aren't shown to visitors on your public video CV page.

The candidate pool and video CV pages are not indexed by search engines. Your video files aren't stored at a public address; when watched, they open through links that are valid for a short time only. If an HR specialist shares your application with a manager for review, the manager can watch only that application through a link valid for 7 days.

Be careful with other people's information too

Your video CV may include not only your own information but also, without your realizing it, other people's information. Be careful with that too:

Make sure your video doesn't include the image or voice of family members, friends or coworkers; their image and voice are personal data too.
Don't share customer names, internal documents or confidential figures from a previous or current workplace. Keep the details general when describing your achievements.
If you show a screenshot while describing a project, make sure it doesn't contain anyone else's personal information.

Your rights under KVKK

Article 11 of KVKK grants certain rights to the person whose data is processed. Some of them are:

To find out whether your personal data is being processed and, if so, to request information about it
To find out the purpose for which your data is processed and whether it is used in line with that purpose
To know the third parties, in Türkiye or abroad, to whom your data is transferred
To request correction if it has been processed incompletely or inaccurately, and deletion if the conditions for processing no longer exist
To object to a result against you arising from an analysis carried out solely by automated systems
To request compensation if you suffer damage because of unlawful processing

How to submit your request is explained in the KVKK privacy notice. PlayCV doesn't screen out candidates automatically; ratings, comments and decisions are made by the employer's team.

Withdrawing your explicit consent, downloading your data, deleting your account

You can withdraw the explicit consent you gave for your video at any time. On PlayCV, you do this in the My data section of the My profile page. When you withdraw your consent, your videos and photos are deleted and your CVs are hidden; you can't upload videos until you give consent again.

From the same section, you can download the records PlayCV keeps about you as a single file or delete your account completely. When your account is deleted, your profile, video CVs and application history are permanently deleted; records with a legal retention period are only kept inaccessible for that period.

İpucu: If you don't want to delete your CV completely, you can first set its visibility to Hidden. That way it doesn't appear in the candidate pool, but the companies you applied to can still see it.

A quick note

This article is for general information only and isn't a substitute for legal advice. If you run into a problem with your personal data, you can first contact the data controller, and if that doesn't resolve it, you can file a complaint with the Personal Data Protection Board.

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