Personal Data Protection Notice (KVKK)

1. Data Controller and the Platform's Purpose

Under Turkish Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data ("KVKK"), the data controller for personal data you share on Faroys ("Platform") is Şerif Kurhan, who operates the platform individually as a private person (contact: info@faroys.com). Faroys is a non-commercial, entirely volunteer-driven platform built to support solidarity, information sharing, and employment matching among seafarers — you don't need an account to browse job listings or forum content, and creating a CV or public profile is entirely optional. This notice applies to seafarers, company representatives and visitors using our platform.

2. Categories of Personal Data We Process

Depending on your account type and how you use the platform, we process the following categories of personal data:

Seafarer accounts: full name, email and rank at registration (required); and, at your own choice, a profile photo, bio, date/place of birth, nationality, phone, address, Seamanbook number, sea service history, certificates (and the documents you upload for them), education and language records.
Company accounts: email, account type, company name, authorized person's name, phone, address and country at registration (required); and, depending on account type, tax number/tax office or IMO number, website, company logo and fleet/vessel information (optional).
Security information: hashed password, login/session records, IP address, request records kept to prevent abuse.
Notification information: your notification preferences, and — if you use the mobile app — your push-notification device token.
Content you post: forum posts/comments, company reviews — these are visible to other users as part of how the platform works.

The Platform does not guarantee the accuracy of information users voluntarily share; you are responsible for the accuracy of what you provide.

3. Purposes of Processing and Limits of Liability

We process your personal data for the following purposes:

Creating your account, authenticating you, and keeping it secure.
Matching your seafarer profile with job listings and making it available to approved companies.
Reviewing company registrations and running the approval/rejection process (tax number / IMO number verification helps prevent fraudulent company accounts).
Operating the job listings and forum modules.
Keeping the platform secure and detecting/preventing abuse (spam, fake accounts, fraud).
Complying with legal obligations and responding to lawful requests from public authorities.

FAROYS is not an employer or an employment agency; it is only a platform that connects seafarers and companies. FAROYS cannot be held liable for the communication established between parties or its outcomes.

4. How We Collect It and Our Legal Basis

We collect your personal data directly from you, electronically (web and mobile app), when you register or update your profile/CV.

Legal basis: under KVKK Art. 5/2, we rely on (a) processing directly related to the establishment or performance of a contract (your membership and use of the service), (b) compliance with a legal obligation, (c) our legitimate interest (security, fraud prevention), and (d) your explicit consent (in particular for the international transfer described in Section 5 below).

5. Who We Share Your Data With, Including Abroad

We never sell your personal data to third parties or share it for marketing purposes.

Faroys is a global network; company registration is not limited to Turkey — a shipowner or company from any country can register and be approved. For this reason, your seafarer profile and CV information may, for the purpose of the job-matching process and based on the explicit consent you give at registration, be shared with approved shipowner/company accounts both in Turkey and abroad.

Beyond that, we may share your personal data with the following parties, strictly for the purposes stated:

Hosting and infrastructure providers — your data is stored securely on our servers.
Our mobile push-notification infrastructure (Expo Push Service) — only your device token is shared, solely to deliver notifications.
Public authorities — only where legally required or upon a duly issued lawful request.
Other users — content that is inherently public on the platform, such as your forum posts.

6. Retention Period

We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active. When you request account deletion from your account settings, your account is immediately hidden from public view; unless you cancel the request, it is permanently deleted or anonymized within 30 days. Data subject to a legal retention obligation is kept separately for the period required by law.

7. Your Rights (KVKK Art. 11)

Under Article 11 of the KVKK, you have the right to:

Learn whether your personal data is being processed,
Request information about it if it is,
Learn the purpose of processing and whether it is used accordingly,
Know the third parties to whom it is transferred, domestically or abroad,
Request correction if it is incomplete or inaccurate,
Request its deletion or destruction within the conditions set out in the KVKK,
Request that correction/deletion be notified to third parties it was transferred to,
Object to a result that is to your detriment arising from analysis exclusively by automated systems,
Request compensation for damages arising from unlawful processing.

8. Cookies

We do not use Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, or any behavior-tracking or advertising cookies. Only cookies required for the platform to function are active: sign-in (session) and language preference.

9. How to Exercise These Rights

To exercise the rights above, you may submit a written request to info@faroys.com along with information verifying your identity. Requests are resolved free of charge within the period required by the KVKK (at most 30 days). You may also request deletion directly from your account settings.

Note: Faroys currently operates as a non-commercial, volunteer-driven platform; our server/hosting location has not yet been finalized. Modules that are not yet active — Store, eSIM, and company subscriptions (Faroys Pro) — are intentionally excluded from this notice to avoid confusion. This notice will be updated and users notified once those modules go live and once the server/domain decision is finalized.