Data Fusion Company IDI Has a Profile on Every American
According to a Bloomberg report, a data fusion company called Interactive Data Intelligence (IDI) has a profile of every American adult. Based out of Boca Raton in Florida, the company is just one year old. IDI lends its services to government agencies, private investigators, law firms, debt collectors etc. However, anyone looking for a profile must produce a valid reason for a search.
What is Data Fusion?
Data fusion is the process of integrating data and knowledge from multiple sources on any real world object to come to a consistent, accurate representation of the data.
So What Does a Profile Consist of?
IDI's database service, called idiCore, uses both public and non public records. It then combines these records with a person's demographic, financial, behavioural and consumption pattern data thus creating a comprehensive profile on the person. Thus a profile, apart from having basic address and contact details, also provides details on criminal records, ownership of property, GPS-tagged photographs, hunting permits, mortgages and so on.
The History of IDI
Interactive Data Intelligence (IDI) traces its origins to the company of 'the father of data fusion' Hank Asher. After Asher passed away in 2013, his company, called The Last One (TLO), filed for bankruptcy. Asher's colleagues left TLO and founded IDI in 2015 after teaming up with billionaire health-care investor Phillip Frost, and a former business partner of Asher's called Michael Brauser.
Who is Hank Asher?
Born in 1951, Hank Asher dropped out of school and was a cocaine smuggler and self-taught programmer. In the early 1990s, Asher started mining data for an insurance company and from there went on to lay the foundations of what is called data fusion.
