Trestle provides multiple “link_to…” fields as part of the responses of our enrichment products, Reverse Phone API, Caller Identification API, Reverse Address API, and Find Person API. In this article, we will provide a breakdown of how that field is defined, potential use cases, and an overview of what kind of coverage to expect.
Below, is a list of the responses you could see in these products:
For phones:
- link_to_phone_start_date
For addresses:
- When searching for a person:
- link_to_person_start_date
- link_to_person_end_date
- When searching for an address:
- link_to_address_start_date
- link_to_address_end_date
In some cases, the response field would be different depending on the context of the search. However, the link date would have been established as the same date on either side. So, if you search for a person, the link to person field would have the same date as if you had searched for the same address and received a link to address date.
What does the response in this field mean? #
These dates are when we or one of our data providers saw the phone or the address linked to the person or business. It could be the exact date of the change, or it might be slightly delayed depending on when this data was available through one of our data providers.
When a date is provided in the response, this suggests the earliest point in time that Trestle was able to establish the person was connected to this phone or address in the Trestle Identify Graph.
While there are various ways that we can establish a connection between a person and a phone number or address, this field being populated would typically mean that we have a high degree of confidence in the person being directly connected to this phone number or address.
If the response is “null”, then this means that Trestle does not have a high enough confidence level in the person being linked to this phone number/address at that point in time. With additional data points over time, a link start date would be established when that confidence increases.
Equally important, the date listed here should not be assumed to be the date the person subscribed to the phone number.
How should this type of result be used? #
These dates can be a good indication of the age of the association. If used in a machine learning model, this can be a good strength indicator of the phone-to-name or address-to-name match.
Due to Trestle’s various sources of data, this link date can be utilized as a good indicator of the length of time that a person has been linked to this phone or address. Potentially, it can even be used with a machine learning model to determine a strength indicator of the result.
Coverage Expectations #
When Trestle’s Identity Graph has a name associated with a number, you can generally expect ~80% coverage for this field. For addresses with a name associated, the coverage will be closer to ~70% coverage.
If no name is attached to the number or address, this field will always return “null”, as Trestle has not identified a connection between a person and the phone number.
As mentioned above, Trestle requires a certain level of confidence to create a link like this. So, if this threshold has not been reached, the field will return “null” even if a name is attached, but that should only occur ~20-30% of the time.
If you have any additional questions about the definition of this field or the coverage we can offer, please reach out to support@trestleiq.com.