How this was checked

What profiling means

Verified · last checked Settled, with the evidence a claim at this level needs.

Under the EU AI Act, profiling means profiling as defined in Article 4, point (4), of the GDPR, which defines it as any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of the use of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyse or predict aspects concerning that person's performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or movements.

At a glance

The statement laid out, in its own words. The statement above and its sources are what count.

The AI Act borrows the GDPR's definition

  • Article 3(52) of the AI Act refers to Article 4(4) of the GDPR

Profiling under Article 4(4) of the GDPR

  • Any form of automated processing of personal data
  • consisting of the use of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person
  • in particular to analyse or predict aspects concerning performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or movements

Where the book relies on it

Kind of evidence
documentarySettled by a first-hand source, quoted below with the day it was read.

The evidence

(52) 'profiling' means profiling as defined in Article 4, point (4), of Regulation (EU) 2016/679;

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 3, point (52), in the consolidated text CELEX 02024R1689 as consolidated on 27 July 2026 (English). Read from sources/eu-ai-act/02024R1689-20260727-consolidated-EN.html, downloaded from EUR-Lex on 2026-10-08, and re-read on 2026-10-21 in its plain text at out/legal/consolidated-en.txt. The point sits after the last M1 marker of Article 3 and under the base marker: Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 did not amend it. The typographic quotation marks of the text are transcribed as plain ones., read

Open the official source

(4) 'profiling' means any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of the use of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyse or predict aspects concerning that natural person's performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or movements;

Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Article 4, point (4), in the consolidated text CELEX 02016R0679-20160504 (English), version 000.002, which incorporates the corrigendum published in OJ L 127 of 23 May 2018. Read on 2026-10-21 from the file saved at sources/gdpr/02016R0679-20160504-consolidated-EN.html, downloaded on 2026-10-20 from the Publications Office repository; provenance and checksums in sources/gdpr/README.md. Article 4 carries the base marker: the corrigendum did not touch point (4). The typographic quotation marks and apostrophe of the text are transcribed as plain ones., read

Open the official source

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