Personator Consumer:Notice

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Major Personator Consumer Database Update

As we continue to improve our service, a newly updated and refined version of the Personator Reference Data will be released.

The new version will ultimately improve the API’s current ability to:

1. Append more accurate demographics and contact information.
2. Verify name-address-phone-email correlation to ensure full contact accuracy.
3. Perform Moves and provide the latest address for individuals.

The Personator Consumer Database is compiled from several sources and industries such as Property Information Data, Loan Data, Credit Data, Telephone Data, Voter Data, and several other private sources. The final combined database merges all contact records including Addresses, Phone Numbers, Emails, Names and demographics, amounting to over a billion records of historical and current information. This data is then exposed through the Personator Consumer Web Service which allows for checking, verifying, appending and updating contact records.

Why are we Re-Compiling Personator’s Data?

Over time, we have deemed some of our data sources to be outdated and inaccurate, thus needing to be purged. We have also acquired new data sources that offer better and more comprehensive consumer data. Hence, the recompilation of Personator’s Reference Data. In order to leverage the newer and better sources as well as removing old and outdated information, a major re-compile of the reference data has been implemented and is set for release.

For all inquiries, issues and questions please contact Melissa Tech Support.

Are there any Changes that Need to be Done on the Client Side?

No. The Data update will be seamless. There is nothing that needs to be done on the client side.

Will there be Any Service Interruption?

No. There will be no service interruption for this update. As each of the server clusters are drain-stopped and updated, traffic will be re-directed to up and running clusters.

What are the Changes that we will see with this Update?

Due to the changes and improvements in the Personator Consumer Database, the appended contact information and demographics will change. The affected output fields include:

Output Field
NameFull
PhoneNumber
EmailAddress
MoveDate
HouseholdIncome
LengthOfResidence
OwnRent
Occupation
PresenceOfChildren
MaritalStatus
DateOfDeath
DateOfBirth
CreditCardUser
PresenceOfSenior
ChildrenAgeRange
Education
PoliticalParty
EthnicGroup
EthnicCode
DemographicsGender
HouseholdSize
DemographicsResults

Some of the changes include:

Differences in Appended Data

Due to the changes in the data, which includes the removal of old sources and the addition of new ones, it follows that there will be differences in the information appended. Data may change, no longer exist, or append new information depending on the information now available to the service.

Increased/Decreased Append Rates

As we add new sources of data to Personator and remove old ones, changes in append rates will also occur. Append rates will vary and will be heavily dependent on the nature of your data and the information being submitted. In our testing, we have seen an increase in append rates in most cases, however, there may be some cases where append rates may go down.

Differences in Verification

Personator’s verification feature will also go through differences. VR** Codes in Personator are used to indicate whether the entered name is associated to the phone, address and email. As the sources of the data change for this update, so to will the contact information that the service will or will not be able to verify.

Differences in Moves

As Personator makes use of proprietary algorithms and data to determine moves, this update will also affect changes in the individuals that we can and cannot provide a move for.

Personator 2018 Update

Released 03/07/2018

The new version of Personator with structural changes to the WSDL that can now be consumed using the following endpoint:

rcpersonator.melissadata.net

Personator continues to grow with demand for new IP Address information and input properties to help track a specific target. The 2018 update includes the addition of new elements in the Request/Response Structure which in effect also changes the WSDL structure. Please follow proper update procedures to prevent sudden disruption of service.

Timeline

The official Personator Endpoint (personator.melissadata.net) will be updated to the new version on <insert update date>. The rcpersonator endpoint will continue to be online until 06/01/2018, after which it will be taken offline.

Here is the official timeline:

	03/07/2018	04/18/2018	06/01/2018
Release Candidate Endpoint (rcpersonator.melissadata.net)	Release: Version 5.2	Version 5.2	Offline
Official Endpoint (personator.melissadata.net)	Version 5.1.31	Update: Version 5.2	Version 5.2

Update Procedures

Clients whose Web Service Integrations do not support WSDL changes due to the addition of new elements in the request/response structure are strongly advised to follow these update procedures:

1. All applications must be re-compiled to use the Release Candidate Endpoint (rcpersonator.melissadata.net) before 04/18/2018.
2. Come 04/18/2018, we will be updating the Official Endpoint with Version 5.2 of Personator. At this time, all applications must be switched back to use the Official Endpoint before 06/01/2018 when the Release Candidate endpoint goes offline.

Clients whose Web Service Integrations support structure/WSDL additions are still strongly encouraged to follow this update procedure, but are not required to.

Version 5 Changes

Input Structure

The following elements have been added as a request field:

Input Field
IPAddress
BirthDay
BirthMonth
BirthYear

Please Note

The BirthDay, BirthMonth and BirthYear Inputs are only place holders for the web service. They currently do not provide any functionality. A separate announcement will be sent for the activation of these new fields and features at a future time.

The IP Address Input however, allows for retrieving IP Address Information. The new output fields for IP Address, are defined below.

Output Structure

The following elements have been added as part of the response structure.

It is now possible to retrieve these fields when entering an input IP Address and requesting for the columns from the GrpIPAddress:

Column Name	Column Group
DistanceAddressToIP	GrpIPAddress
IPAddress
IPCity
IPConnectionSpeed
IPConnectionType
IPContinent
IPCountryAbbreviation
IPCountryName
IPDomainName
IPISPName
IPLatitude
IPLongitude
IPPostalCode
IPProxyDescription
IPProxyType
IPRegion
IPUTC

The new IP Address output fields and their definitions can be found here: Personator Response IP Address.

There is also a new EstimatedHomeValue column. It currently does not output any data/values. A separate announcement will be sent for the activation of this new field and its features at a future time.

Column Name	Column Group
EstimatedHomeValue	None

In order to retrieve these new elements in the Response, you may enumerate each field in the Columns Request or request for the GrpIPAddress column:

<Columns>EstimatedHomeValue,DistanceAddressToIP,IPAddress,IPCity,IPConnectionSpeed,IPConnectionType,IPContinent,IPCountryAbbreviation,IPCountryName,IPDomainName,IPISPName,IPLatitude,IPLongitude,IPPostalCode,IPProxyDescription,IPProxyType,IPREgion,IPUTC</Columns>