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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 are always current: false because we have no way to tell whether 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?” current is always true or false on these arrays, never null.

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Company Data: The current Field

Company locations carry current too: true for an office that is still operating, false for one that has closed. Closed offices stay in the list so you can see where a company used to be. The primary location, the company’s headquarters, is always a current one.

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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 Landlines are often shared (household) or outdated.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: false. current: true means we have confirmed an address is the one to use now. For a personal address we have no way to tell whether the person still uses it, so it is never marked current. false here means “not confirmed current”, not “confirmed abandoned”. 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. Headcount and workforce composition (legion_employee_count and the legion_*_distribution fields) are derived from person data and describe each employee as of their most recent profile update. Hiring, attrition, growth, and turnover (legion_employee_count_by_month, legion_new_hire_count, legion_attrition_count, legion_employee_growth_rate, legion_turnover_rate) end at the release’s as-of month, which is earlier than the release date. A hire or departure reaches our data only after the person updates their profile and we observe it again, which often takes months. Counting up to the release date would show the most recent months as nearly empty, and every company would look like it had stopped hiring. Instead, each release ends the trend fields at the latest month that at least 90% of employed people’s profiles have been observed after. The as-of month is the last entry of legion_employee_count_by_month, is the same for every company in a release, and moves forward as newer profile data arrives. The windows are the 1, 3, 6, and 12 calendar months ending at the as-of month, inclusive. Headcount growth over a window equals hires minus departures in it, divided by headcount at the window’s start. A promotion or internal move is neither a hire nor a departure, and someone who left and returned after more than two months counts as both.

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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 have no way to make that determination, so they are always false.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.
They end at the as-of month: the latest month most employee profiles have been updated since. Months after it are still filling in as people update their profiles, and would read as a hiring freeze. See Workforce Trends.
Data is refreshed monthly. The current flag helps you identify the most up-to-date contact information.