DATA MATCHING

 Data Search and Matching is a large and complex subject area. Unlike many information processing issues, the problems associated with data matching cannot be made to go away by redefining processes and procedures. The names and labels that are necessarily used, in the data in computer systems, are those that are in common use in the real world and cannot be freely changed. 

Data capture of name and address data, and other identity attributes, is prone to error and variation even when done by an organization’s internal staff. With the proliferation of internet online forms, each one in its own way a bit different, and solicitation of self data entry, the variation problem is only exasperated.

Data sharing among Government Agencies usually brings with it the caveat that the data cannot be changed by the receiving agency, and any data matching that is to take place needs to work with the original data.  

The multi-cultural nature of many countries brought on by mass immigration also poses its own sub-class of problem when trying to match identities whose naming attributes may be less familiar to the users of the business systems which manage that data. 

Policing, security and border agencies face an additional challenge of trying to find identities despite often limited data and sometimes deliberate alteration of identity attributes; as well as, in the case of border agencies, being faced with a mostly international client base.