User profile
A user profile is a visual display of personal data associated with a specific user, or a customized desktop environment. A profile refers therefore to the explicit digital representation of a person's identity. A user profile can also be considered as the computer representation of a user model. A user model is a structure that is used to capture certain characteristics about an individual user, and the process of obtaining the user profile is called user modeling or profiling.
A profile can be used to store the description of the characteristics of a person. This information can be exploited by systems taking into account the person's characteristics and preferences.
User profiles can be found on operating systems, computer programs, recommender systems, or dynamic websites.
