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How we track recency and determine which data is current across person and company records.

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Overview

Both person and company records include last_seen dates to track when data was last observed. Person data additionally uses current flags on contact arrays (phones, emails, locations, socials) to indicate our best assessment for which contact method to use right now. Only mobile phones can be marked current. Personal emails have current: null because we can’t verify if they’re still in use.

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Person Data: The current Field

The current field answers: “If I need to contact this person, which phone/email should I use?”

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Phone Classification

Phones are classified by type, which affects current selection: Why only mobiles? People typically have one primary mobile number. Landlines are often shared (household) or outdated. By selecting exactly one mobile as current, we give downstream users a clear “call this number” recommendation.

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Work Email Current Rules

A work email is marked current: true when it meets our criteria for current employment verification. If multiple work emails qualify, we select the best one using our proprietary selection criteria.

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Personal Email Current Rules

Personal emails (Gmail, Yahoo, ISP emails, etc.) always have current: null. Why null instead of true/false?
  • true would imply we confirmed they still use it (we haven’t)
  • false would imply we confirmed they don’t (we haven’t)
  • null = “unknown” is the honest answer
Personal emails can still have high confidence and multiple sources. The current field specifically measures “confirmed active use,” which requires external validation we don’t currently perform.

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Top-Level Convenience Fields

For quick access, we promote current: true items to top-level fields: These are extracted from arrays, not separate data. If no current: true entry exists, the top-level field will be null.

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Company Data: Freshness Tracking

Company records track freshness at the record level rather than per-field: Company data does not use current flags. Company socials, domains, and tickers do not include per-element confidence, num_sources, last_seen, or current fields. These are simpler structures compared to person contact arrays. Workforce analytics fields (the legion_ prefix fields) are derived monthly from person data and reflect the state of the workforce at the time of the most recent build.

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Common Questions

confidence measures how many sources agree this email belongs to this person. current measures whether we can confirm it’s actively used today. For personal emails, we can’t make that determination without external validation, so we leave it as null (unknown).We do not currently perform active-use verification for personal emails.
Check the phone type:
  • If it’s a landline/VoIP, these are never current (only mobiles qualify)
  • If it’s a mobile, only one mobile per person is current; this one wasn’t selected
Work emails must meet our criteria to be marked current. For phones, we use our prioritization method.
Yes. Historical phones/emails are still included in the output, but they won’t be marked current. Some use cases (research, identity assessment) benefit from historical data.
Data is refreshed monthly. The current flag helps you identify the most up-to-date contact information.