Profiling

Profiling, as defined by the GDPR in Article 4, refers to any form of automated processing of personal data aimed at evaluating specific personal aspects of a natural person, particularly to analyze or predict aspects concerning the data subject’s work performance, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behavior, location, or movements.

Profiling is often used to personalize product and service offerings, such as in marketing, but it can also have significant privacy implications for data subjects, especially when used to make decisions that produce legal effects or other significant consequences. The GDPR imposes specific requirements on profiling-based processing, particularly when it involves automated decision-making, including the need to clearly inform data subjects and ensure their right to object and obtain human review of the decisions.

Profiling requires a high level of transparency. Data subjects must be informed that they are being profiled, the purposes of profiling, and the potential consequences of such processing. Additionally, the data subject’s consent is often required when profiling has significant effects on the individual, as provided by Article 22 of the GDPR.

Trust Guardian’s Approach to Profiling
Trust Guardian helps companies manage profiling in a GDPR-compliant manner by facilitating consent management: it documents consent collection with related Proofs of Genuineness, and monitors data retention for each data subject, notifying various business systems when the retention period expires to prevent continued processing when it is no longer lawful – whether due to expiration or withdrawal of consent by the data subject. In this way, Trust Guardian helps companies mitigate the risk of privacy violations.