Using observations of a person to determine if data corresponds to the person
Systems and methods to store data obtained from observations and to determine a correspondence of certain data to a particular person. In one approach, a method includes: receiving or making a plurality of observations for a person (e.g., data extracted from e-mails sent to the person); storing the observations in a repository (e.g., a database on a server); and determining whether data in a first observation of the observations corresponds to the person, wherein the determining is based on the plurality of observations.
1. A method, comprising:
receiving, via a computing device, a plurality of messages from a first person;
extracting data from each of the messages, the data including first contact data associated with the first person, wherein the first contact data is extracted from a first message;
storing the extracted data from each of the messages in a repository;
after storing the extracted data, receiving a new message from the first person, the new message comprising the first contact data associated with a first user in a body of the new message, and the new message further comprising second contact data associated with a second user in the body of the new message;
extracting the first contact data and the second contact data from the new message to provide new data;
sending at least one query to the repository, the at least one query comprising the new data extracted from the new message and an identity of the first person;
in response to the at least one query, receiving, from the repository, at least one search result including a first confidence score corresponding to the first contact data and indicating a confidence that the first contact data corresponds to the first person and a second confidence score corresponding to the second contact data and indicating a confidence that the second contact data corresponds to the first person;
based on the at least one search result including the first and second confidence scores, determining, via a computing device, which of the first contact data and the second contact data in a body of the new message to use to update a profile for the first person; and
in response to determining that the first confidence score satisfies a threshold value indicating that the first contact data extracted from the body of the new message corresponds to the first person and determining that the second confidence score fails to satisfy the threshold value, updating the profile for the first person using the first contact data, the profile comprising contact details for the first person.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing profile data for each of a plurality of recipients of the messages as a plurality of person profiles.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first confidence score and the second confidence score are compared to the threshold value.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, from a computing device, a query requesting at least one confidence score for ranking a list of data items for one of the plurality of recipients to be presented on a display.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using the at least one search result for caller identification.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising prior to the determining which of the first contact data and the second contact data corresponds to the first person, determining whether the first contact data was previously sent to a user of a computing device.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first contact data is a phone number extracted by following at least one rule based on country formatting for phone numbers.
8. A non-transitory computer-storage medium storing instructions configured to instruct a computing apparatus to:
receive, via the computing apparatus, a plurality of messages from a first sender;
extract data from each of the messages, the data including first contact data associated with the first sender, wherein the first contact data is extracted from a first message;
store the extracted data from each of the messages in a repository;
after storing the extracted data, receive a new message from the first sender, the new message comprising the first contact data associated with a first user in a body of the new message, and the new message further comprising second contact data associated with a second user in the body of the new message;
extract the first contact data and the second contact data from the new message to provide new data;
send at least one query to the repository, the at least one query comprising the new data extracted from the new message and an identity of the first sender;
in response to the at least one query, receive, from the repository, at least one search result including a first confidence score corresponding to the first contact data and indicating a confidence that the first contact data corresponds to the first sender and a second confidence score corresponding to the second contact data and indicating a confidence that the second contact data corresponds to the first sender;
based on the at least one search result including the first and second confidence scores, determine, via the computing apparatus, which of the first contact data and the second contact data in a body of the new message to use to update a profile of the first sender; and
in response to determining that the first confidence score satisfies a predetermined threshold value indicating that the first contact data extracted from the body of the new message corresponds to the first sender and determining that the second confidence score fails to satisfy the threshold value, update the profile for the first sender using the first contact data, the profile comprising contact details for the first sender.
9. The computer-storage medium of claim 8 , wherein an address of the first sender is an e-mail address, the first contact data is a phone number and the first confidence score indicates a correspondence between the address and the phone number.
10. The computer-storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the determining which of the first contact data and the second contact data in the new message corresponds to the first sender further comprises analyzing a distribution pattern of the plurality of messages, wherein the distribution pattern comprises phone numbers extracted from the plurality of messages.
11. The computer-storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions are further configured to instruct the computing apparatus to, prior to determining that the first contact data corresponds to the first sender, determine whether the first contact data was previously sent to a user of a mobile device.
12. The computer-storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions are further configured to instruct the computing apparatus to apply a privacy policy to the repository such that a user of a mobile device may only receive a confidence score related to data of a sender having previously sent one or more messages to the user.
13. The computer-storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions are further configured to instruct the computing apparatus to compute a confidence that the first contact data corresponds to an address of the first sender.
14. The computer-storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the first contact data is a phone number, a street address, or a company name.
15. The computer-storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the number of messages received from the first sender is at least ten.
16. A system, comprising:
at least one processor; and
memory storing instructions configured to instruct the at least one processor to:
receive a plurality of messages from a first person;
store data extracted from each of the messages in a repository, the data including first contact data associated with the first person, wherein the first contact data is extracted from a first message;
after storing the data extracted from each of the messages, receive a new message from the first person, the new message comprising the first contact data associated with a first user in a body of the new message, and the new message further comprising second contact data associated with a second user in the body of the new message;
extract the first contact data and the second contact data from the new message to provide new data;
send at least one query to the repository, the at least one query comprising the new data extracted from the new message and an identity of the first person;
in response to the at least one query, receive, from the repository, at least one search result including a first confidence score corresponding to the first contact data and indicating a confidence that the first contact data corresponds to the first person and a second confidence score corresponding to the second contact data and indicating a confidence that the second contact data corresponds to the first person;
based on the at least one search result including the first and second confidence scores, determine which of the first contact data and the second contact data in a body of the new message to use to update a profile for the first person; and
in response to determining that the first confidence score satisfies a threshold value indicating that the first contact data extracted from the body of the new message corresponds to the first person and determining that the second confidence score fails to satisfy the threshold value, update the profile for the first person using the first contact data, the profile comprising contact details for the first person.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the at least one search result is used to rank information from a person profile for presentation to a user of a computing device, and wherein the person profile is for a caller of a phone call to the user.
18. The system of claim 16 , wherein each of the plurality of messages is an e-mail or a text message.
19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the repository is a database implemented on at least one server.