UK AADC Standard 12 - Profiling
Disable profiling by default; only permit with harm-protection measures in place
Where this comes from
Provision: Standard 12 - Profiling
Instrument: UK Age Appropriate Design Code
Citation: Information Commissioner's Office, Age Appropriate Design: a code of practice for online services, Standard 12
Text version: ICO Age Appropriate Design Code (statutory code under Data Protection Act 2018 s 123), issued 2 Sept 2020
Who it applies to
It applies when all of these are true:
- Service is likely to be accessed by children under 18
- Service collects behavioral data
- Recommendation algorithms is not strictly necessary for service delivery
- Targeted advertising is not strictly necessary for service delivery
…unless:
- Profiling may remain on by default where it directly serves child safety or educational benefit. (ICO AADC Guidance, Standard 12.4)
What engineering work it implies
Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:
- User model has `profilingEnabled` boolean field (default: false)
- Recommendation engine checks profilingEnabled before processing user
- Behavioral tracking skips users with profilingEnabled=false
- Ad targeting excludes users with profilingEnabled=false
- Admin dashboard shows count of users with profiling disabled
Questions people ask
- Does UK AADC Standard 12 - Profiling apply to my service?
- It applies when Service is likely to be accessed by children under 18; Service collects behavioral data; Recommendation algorithms is not strictly necessary for service delivery; Targeted advertising is not strictly necessary for service delivery. It does not apply where Profiling may remain on by default where it directly serves child safety or educational benefit. (ICO AADC Guidance, Standard 12.4).
- From when does this apply?
- UK AADC Standard 12 - Profiling applies from 2 September 2021. Its current status is: in force.
Find out whether this one lands on you
Landfall's pre-scan answers the applicability question above for your product in minutes, then turns every obligation that applies into traceable engineering tickets with a citation chain your auditors can follow.
Not legal advice. Landfall maps regulatory obligations to engineering work for planning purposes. Its verdicts are not legal advice and create no attorney-client relationship — verify with qualified counsel before relying on them.