What is Principle-Based Entity Resolution?

At Senzing, we resolve entities using a unique principle-based approach that delivers higher quality entity resolution results than other methods. Principles also make Senzing® software easier to deploy and virtually eliminates the need for pre-training, tuning or experts.

Our principles are designed for use on a wide range of entity types, including people, organizations, vessels and vehicles. They use a special form of generalized knowledge that draws on common truths or assumptions. These principles are distinctly different than the rules used by many other entity resolution methods. Here’s an example:

You tell your child to quit throwing rocks at cars, which is a rule. The next day you find him throwing baseballs at SUVs and have to tell him not to do that too, another rule. A few days later, you have to tell him not to throw golf balls at trucks, fire engines and ambulances, more rules. Instead of all these rules, why not one simple principle: Don’t throw things at other people’s stuff?

Senzing software uses principles to determine when entities are the same, possibly the same or possibly related. Our principles are based on the expected behaviors of entity attributes, e.g., names, addresses and identifiers. For example, social security numbers (SSNs) typically point to only one person, but dates of birth (DOBs) are shared by many people.

Expected behaviors always have exceptions and Senzing software learns about them in real time as new data is received. For example, when multiple people are using the same SSN, our software detects it, labels the SSN as generic and reevaluates all prior records with that number.

Senzing software comes preconfigured with the common attributes and expected behaviors of people and organizations. You can immediately start loading and resolving entities without any configuration, training or tuning

To learn more about how principles make the entity resolution in Senzing software more efficient, precise and accurate, download Principle-Based Entity Resolution Explained. To try our software for free, download our Senzing API or Senzing desktop evaluation tool.