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Privacy Glossary · Definition

Identity Resolution

The process of stitching together disparate records and identifiers to determine they all refer to the same person.

Full definition

Identity resolution is the matching engine at the heart of every data broker: it decides that a cookie, a hashed email, a MAID, a home address, and a name all belong to one individual, then merges their data into a single profile. It uses both deterministic matching (shared exact identifiers like email) and probabilistic matching (statistical inference from overlapping signals). Identity resolution is why opting out at one broker doesn't clear you from the ecosystem: each broker resolves identity independently from its own sources.

Related terms

Data Enrichment

Augmenting a record you already have (like an email) with additional attributes purchased or inferred from other sources.

Shadow Profile

A profile a company or broker builds about a person who never created an account or knowingly shared data with it.

Data Broker

A company that collects personal information about consumers and sells, licenses, or shares that information with third parties.

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