KVKK privacy notice
Last updated: 5 October 2026 · Version 2.0
This text is informational until it has passed legal review.
This is a courtesy translation of the Turkish text. If the two differ, the Turkish version is binding.
1. Why this notice exists and who it covers
This privacy notice is issued under Article 10 of Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data (KVKK) and the Communiqué on the Procedures and Principles to be Followed in Fulfilling the Obligation to Inform.
This notice is not a consent form; it only explains how your data is processed. Processing that needs your consent is asked separately and is optional (see Explicit consent texts); none of it is a condition of using the service.
It covers: people who register as candidates, employer account holders and company representatives, people invited to verify a candidate's experience, people who use the contact form, community users and site visitors.
2. Data controller
Data controller: Searcher Teknoloji A.Ş.
Address: Levent, İstanbul
MERSIS no: [MERSİS numarası]
Registered e-mail (KEP): [KEP adresi]
E-mail for KVKK requests: kvkk@searcher.com
3. Personal data we process
The table shows which groups of data we process and where they come from. Searcher does not ask for special categories of personal data (religion, health, union membership, biometric data, etc.); please do not write such information in profile fields.
| Data group | Examples | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Full name, username (profile address) | Registration form, profile |
| Contact | E-mail address, country and city | Registration form, profile |
| CV and profile | Work module and occupation, skills, experience (company, title, dates, description), education and certificates, languages, work authorisation, location and mobility preferences, pay expectation (lower and upper bound), notice period | Information you enter |
| Image | Profile photo (optional) | File you upload |
| Verification | Identity document image, company document, verification decision | Files you upload, staff decision |
| Transaction | Offers, responses, counter-offers, interview schedule, messages, notifications, profile-view records | Use of the platform |
| Employer | Company name, tax number, website domain, account holder's name and e-mail, subscription and invoice records | Registration form, company settings |
| Third party | E-mail address of a person a candidate wrote to verify experience | Candidate |
| Consent and requests | Consent records (which text version, when), data export and deletion requests | Your choices |
| Security | Session data, cookies, access logs of the infrastructure provider | Automatic |
Payment card details are not stored in Searcher systems.
4. Purposes and legal bases
We process your data only for the purposes below and on the legal bases in Article 5 of the KVKK.
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Opening your account, authentication, providing the service | Establishment and performance of a contract (Art. 5/2-c) |
| Rule-based scoring of your profile against roles and showing it to suitable employers | Performance of a contract (Art. 5/2-c) |
| AI-assisted evaluation and the related transfer abroad | Explicit consent (Art. 5/1, Art. 9) |
| Delivering offers, counter-offers, messaging, interview scheduling, notifications | Performance of a contract (Art. 5/2-c) |
| Identity and company verification (preventing fake accounts and fraud) | Legitimate interest (Art. 5/2-f); explicit consent (Art. 6/2) because an ID may contain special-category data |
| Information security, abuse prevention, debugging | Legitimate interest (Art. 5/2-f) |
| Retaining traffic data as a hosting provider | Expressly provided by law (Art. 5/2-a; Law No. 5651) |
| Invoicing, accounting, tax and commercial-book obligations | Legal obligation (Art. 5/2-ç) |
| Anonymous, aggregated market statistics (e.g. pay medians) | Data is anonymised before use; anonymous data is outside the KVKK |
| Commercial electronic messages (campaigns, product news) | Explicit consent (Law No. 6563, Art. 5/1) |
| Proving that consent was given or withdrawn, disputes | Establishment, exercise or protection of a right (Art. 5/2-e) |
| Answering contact-form messages and KVKK requests | Legitimate interest (Art. 5/2-f), legal obligation (Art. 5/2-ç) |
| Strictly necessary cookies | Legitimate interest (Art. 5/2-f) |
5. Who receives your data
Transfers are made only to the groups below and only as far as necessary; your data is never sold.
- Employers: your profile is seen only by employers who match you and can send you an offer. While "Hide my name in lists" is on (default) an employer does not see your name, photo or e-mail; your name becomes visible once an offer reaches you. Your contact details are shared when you accept an offer. Companies you block cannot see your profile in any way. In passive mode only companies you match with see your profile. Purpose: running the offer process.
- Service providers (data processors): database, file storage, authentication and hosting infrastructure and e-mail delivery providers. They process data only on our instructions and as far as the service requires.
- AI provider: only if you give explicit consent; details in "AI-assisted evaluation" below.
- Image and icon providers: some photos and company icons on pages are loaded from third-party servers; when your browser requests those files your IP address reaches those servers (see the cookie policy).
- Competent public authorities and courts: limited to mandatory requests under law.
- Internal staff: only employees authorised for identity/company verification and support; documents are opened through a signed link valid for 5 minutes.
6. AI-assisted evaluation and automated decisions
The matching engine first computes how well a candidate fits a role with a rule-based score: the work module as a hard pre-filter, plus skills, languages, location, pay band and similar criteria.
If you give explicit consent, the same evaluation is additionally performed by an AI provider on a pseudonymised summary of your profile. The summary contains no name, e-mail, photo, identity document or former employer names; names and employer names in the text are masked. If you do not consent, or withdraw later, your matching continues with the rule-based score only and your document is deleted from the provider; you lose no other right.
No decision producing legal effects about you is taken by automated processing alone: the score is only a suggestion to the employer; the decision to send an offer always belongs to a human (the employer) and the decision to accept or decline an offer always belongs to you. You still keep your right under Article 11/1-g of the KVKK to object to an adverse result arising from analysis by automated systems.
7. Transfers abroad
The servers of our infrastructure providers may be located abroad; your data would then be transferred abroad under Article 9 of the KVKK. Such transfers rely on the appropriate safeguards of Article 9, such as the standard contract texts published by the Personal Data Protection Board or a valid adequacy decision, and signed standard contracts are notified to the Authority in time.
A transfer to the AI provider relies solely on the separate explicit consent you may give; if you do not consent it does not take place.
You can request current information on the countries and safeguards at kvkk@searcher.com.
8. Retention periods
We keep your data for as long as the purpose requires and for the periods set by law; afterwards it is deleted, destroyed or anonymised. Summary:
| Data | Period |
|---|---|
| Account and profile data | While the account is open; on a deletion request deleted or anonymised within 30 days |
| Identity and company documents | 30 days after the decision; immediately on a deletion request |
| E-mail written for experience verification | The invitation is valid for 14 days; anonymised 30 days after the reply or expiry |
| Data export file | 7 days (deleted together with the download link) |
| Contact-form messages | 1 year |
| Invoice and payment records | 10 years (tax and commercial law) |
| Consent records | 10 years after the account is deleted (proof; the record holds no name or e-mail) |
| Offer and statistics records | De-identified when the account is deleted; kept without identity |
The detailed table and destruction methods are in the Retention and destruction policy.
9. Security measures
Under Article 12 of the KVKK we put in place technical and administrative measures:
- The database cannot be reached directly from client browsers; all access passes through an authorised server layer and row-level security is enabled on the tables.
- Identity and company documents are kept in a non-public store and opened only through short-lived signed links.
- Data is encrypted in transit with TLS.
- Application logs never contain names, e-mails, phone numbers or document paths.
- Only a pseudonymised summary goes to the AI provider.
- Staff access is limited by permission; only employees authorised for verification and support can see documents.
- Deletion requests are applied across all layers (database, file storage, AI provider, authentication) and checked by sweeper jobs.
In case of a data breach we notify the Board as soon as possible and within 72 hours at the latest (KVKK Art. 12/5), and the affected people within a reasonable time.
10. People invited to verify experience
A candidate may have invited you (a former manager or colleague) by e-mail to verify their experience. You do not need to create an account. Your e-mail address is used only to send the invitation; your reply (approval or rejection and your short note, if any) appears on the candidate's profile as "verified".
The invitation is valid for 14 days. We anonymise the address 30 days after your reply or the expiry. If you are bothered by the invitation you can ask for your data to be deleted at kvkk@searcher.com; you keep all the rights in this notice.
11. Your rights under KVKK Article 11
As a data subject you have the right to:
- learn whether your personal data is processed,
- request information if it has been processed,
- learn the purpose of processing and whether it is used accordingly,
- know the third parties to whom it is transferred in Turkey or abroad,
- request correction if it is incomplete or inaccurate,
- request deletion or destruction under the conditions of Article 7,
- request that correction, deletion and destruction be notified to the third parties to whom the data was transferred,
- object to an adverse result arising from analysis exclusively by automated systems,
- claim compensation if you suffer damage because of unlawful processing.
You can withdraw any explicit consent at any time, as easily as you gave it. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing before it.
12. How to make a request and time limits
The fastest way to exercise your rights is Settings › My data: you can download a copy of your data and delete your account; you can manage explicit consents in Settings › My permissions.
For other requests:
- write to kvkk@searcher.com from the e-mail address registered on your account,
- send a request by registered e-mail to [KEP adresi] or by signed written petition to Levent, İstanbul.
State your name, identifying details and the subject of your request. If we cannot verify your identity we may ask for more information. We conclude requests free of charge as soon as possible and within thirty days at the latest; if the action requires a separate cost, the fee in the Board's tariff may be charged.
If your request is rejected, you find the answer insufficient or no answer is given in time, you may complain to the Personal Data Protection Board within thirty days of learning the answer and in any case within sixty days of applying (KVKK Art. 14).
13. Changes
We update this notice as law or our service changes. The current version number and date are at the top of the page. When a change materially affects how your data is processed we inform you beforehand; where a change needs fresh explicit consent we ask for it separately. You can request earlier versions at kvkk@searcher.com.