Systems and methods for data verification

• US 10,437,895 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2016
• Issued: 10/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Consumerinfo.com Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Original Assignee: Consumerinfo.com Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Inventors: Chang, Albert Chia-Shu, Jones, Gregory Dean, Matthies, Carolyn Paige Soltes
• Primary Examiner(s): Starks, Wilbert L
• Application Number:
  US15/155,882
• Publication Number:
  US 20160328476A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,240 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting

Abstract

Embodiments are directed to data verification of business or consumer data. Certain embodiments include a data verification system that receives or selects data to be verified, selects one or more verification methods to verify, update, and/or append/enhance the data. The data verification system may verify the data with one or more data verification methods, either alone or in combination. The methods may include a web-crawling verification method, an agent web verification method, a call verification method, a direct mail method, an email method, an in-person verification method, or other methods. The system has the ability to, automatically or manually, (1) blend automatic and manual segmentation of records or elements by criteria such as industry type, best times of day/month/year to verify, update, or append, cost, and level of importance (2) select the best verification processing method(s), and (3) manage the results and properly verify, update, append/enhance records.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an electronic data store that stores data associated with each of a plurality of individual persons; and

a computing device, comprising a physical processor, that is in communication with the electronic data store and that is configured to;

retrieve, from the electronic data store, a plurality of data elements associated with a person;

electronically locate information regarding the person on a webpage, wherein the information is located by searching content of a plurality of internet data sources using at least one of web crawling or web scraping;

extract the located information regarding the person from the webpage;

determine a creation date associated with the located information based on code of the webpage;

perform a first comparison of one or more portions of the located information regarding the person with at least one of the plurality of data elements associated with the person retrieved from the electronic data store, wherein a portion of the located information is not represented in the plurality of data elements retrieved from the electronic data store;

verify accuracy of the located information based at least in part on the first comparison and data regarding the person obtained from at least one internet data source other than the webpage;

perform a second comparison of the creation date associated with the located information and a date stored in the electronic data store in association with the at least one of the plurality of data elements, wherein the creation date associated with the located information is different than the date stored in the electronic data store;

based on the second comparison, determine that the creation date associated with the located information regarding the person from the webpage is more recent than the date stored in the electronic data store in association with the at least one of the plurality of data elements; and

store one or more updated or appended data elements associated with the person in the electronic data store, wherein the one or more data elements are updated or appended to include at least a portion of the located information in response to determining that the located information is accurate and that the located information has a more recent creation date than the at least one of the plurality of data elements associated with the person in the electronic data store.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the person is located by at least one of an automated web spider or web robot.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is further configured to assess trustworthiness of the webpage prior to storing the one or more updated or appended data elements.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the webpage comprises a page maintained by the person in association with a social networking service.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the webpage is associated with one of a company website or a government website.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein storing the one or more updated or appended data elements associated with the person in the electronic data store is further based at least in part on a trustworthiness ranking associated with the webpage and a trustworthiness ranking of at least one other source of information regarding the person.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is further configured to, prior to storing the one or more updated or appended data elements, verify the located information at least in part by identifying the located information from a source other than an internet data source.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein verifying the located information from a source other than the internet data source comprises applying a verification method that includes an automated telephone calling program executed by a computing system.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the verification method is selected based at least in part on a determination of value associated with the located information.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the verification method is further selected based at least in part on both (a) a cost associated with the verification method and (b) a reliability associated with the verification method.

11. A computer-implemented method comprising:

as implemented by one or more computing devices configured with specific executable instructions,

retrieving, from an electronic data store that stores information regarding a plurality of individual persons, a plurality of data elements associated with a person;

electronically locating information regarding the person on a webpage, wherein the information is located by searching content of a plurality of internet data sources using at least one of web crawling or web scraping;

extracting the located information regarding the person from the webpage;

determining a creation date associated with the located information based on at least one (a) information on the webpage or (b) code of the webpage;

performing a first comparison of one or more portions of the located information regarding the person with at least one of the plurality of data elements associated with the person retrieved from the electronic data store;

performing a second comparison of the creation date associated with the located information and a date stored in the electronic data store in association with the at least one of the plurality of data elements;

based on the second comparison, determining that the creation date associated with the located information regarding the person from the webpage is more recent than the date stored in the electronic data store in association with the at least one of the plurality of data elements; and

storing one or more updated or appended data elements associated with the person in the electronic data store, wherein the one or more data elements are updated or appended to include at least a portion of the located information based at least in part on the determining that the located information has a more recent creation date than the at least one of the plurality of data elements associated with the person in the electronic data store.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the information regarding the person is located by at least one of an automated web spider or web robot.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the webpage comprises a page maintained by the person in association with a social networking service.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the webpage is associated with one of a company website or a government website.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein storing the one or more updated or appended data elements associated with the person in the electronic data store is further based at least in part on a trustworthiness ranking associated with the webpage.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising, prior to storing the one or more updated or appended data elements, verifying the located information based on identifying the located information from a source other than the webpage.

17. A computer-readable, non-transitory storage medium storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more computer systems, configure the one or more computer systems to perform operations comprising:

retrieving, from an electronic data store, a plurality of data elements associated with a person;

electronically locating information regarding the person on a webpage, wherein the information is located by searching content of a plurality of internet data sources using at least one of web crawling or web scraping;

extracting the located information regarding the person from the webpage;

performing a comparison of one or more portions of the located information regarding the person with at least one of the plurality of data elements associated with the person retrieved from the electronic data store;

determining that a creation date of the located information on the webpage is more recent than a date stored in association the at least one of the plurality of data elements associated with the person in the electronic data store; and

based at least in part on the comparison and determining that the creation of the located information is more recent than the date stored in the electronic data store, storing one or more updated or appended data elements associated with the person in the electronic data store, wherein the one or more data elements are updated or appended to include at least a portion of the located information.