profiling
n. uncountablen. the act of collecting information about someone to guess what they are like or what they might do. It is often used by police or businesses to group people based on their behavior. In computing, profiling is the process of measuring how much memory or time a program uses to help it run faster.
n. the recording and analysis of a person's psychological and behavioural characteristics, typically used to predict or categorise their future actions. Often associated with law enforcement or marketing analytics. In software engineering, profiling refers to using tools to analyze a program's performance, specifically its execution time and resource usage, to identify bottlenecks.
The police use criminal profiling to help catch suspects.
Social media companies use consumer profiling to show you ads that match your interests and shopping habits.
Civil rights advocates often argue that racial profiling by security agencies undermines public trust and leads to systemic bias in the justice system.
Commonly appears in compound nouns like 'racial profiling', 'criminal profiling', or 'consumer profiling'.
Last updated July 22, 2026