What is a personality profile (Persoenlichkeitsprofil), and why does it matter for data protection?

A personality profile is a compilation of data that allows an assessment of essential aspects of a natural person's character, and it receives heightened legal protection.

A personality profile (Persönlichkeitsprofil) is created when enough data points are assembled to paint a comprehensive picture of someone's personality. Examples include:

• Personnel dossiers at employers.
• Class directories at schools.
• Application documents from job candidates.
• Comprehensive customer profiles at tech companies.

Why this is a big deal: Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, described the problem clearly in his 2018 keynote to European privacy commissioners: "These scraps of data, each one harmless enough on its own, are carefully assembled, synthesized, traded, and sold. Taken to its extreme, this process creates an enduring digital profile and lets companies know you better than you may know yourself."

The danger isn't any single data point. It's the aggregation. Your favorite color is harmless. Your search history, purchase patterns, location data, social connections, and health records combined create a profile that can be used to manipulate, discriminate, or exploit.

Under Swiss law, personality profiles receive the same heightened protection as specially protected data.