The override overlay feature is only available as of September 2022 user interface update. Contact Verato Support to get the new user interface update.
Universal Identity will generate a notification message for one of the following reasons:
- A postIdentity request was rejected as an overlay. For more information about overlays, refer to Identity Overlay Detection and Prevention.
- The Link ID assigned to a specific Source + Native ID has changed
- A new Source + Native ID is posted for the first time, so it receives an initial Link ID assignment.
- When changes to a source record blocked by Verato's overlay detection are applied, Universal Identity will post a notification message with type IDENTITY_OVERLAY_APPLIED. You can use this notification to ensure that the changes to the source record are reflected correctly in your source system.
Notification messages are not expected to be posted in real time and may result after a short delay.
How Link IDs are assigned
As each of your data source records (uniquely identified by the combination of the Source + Native ID) are posted to Universal Identity using the postIdentity web service, Verato assigns a unique Link ID to that unique person.
Multiple, different source records that are deemed to be the same person are assigned the same Link ID. The Link ID assignment is included in the postIdentity web service response.
Some clients elect to store the assigned Link ID in their own applications or data warehouses to help improve their own business processes or analytics/reporting. If you store the assigned Link ID in any of your own applications/databases, you must keep the assigned Link ID updated if the assignment changes.
Link ID assignments rarely change, but they can change if future postIdentity operations introduce new data that allows Universal Identity to determine an identity match that was not apparent in the past.
Initial Link ID assignment notifications
When an individual source record (uniquely identified by the combination of the Source + Native ID) is posted to Universal Identity for the first time, Verato assigns the initial unique Link ID to that unique person.
By default, notification messages are NOT generated for initial Link ID assignments.
In many cases, organizations that want to store the Link ID assignments capture the initial Link ID assignment from the postIdentity web service response, so the notification messages for initial Link ID assignment are disabled by default to avoid creating unnecessary messages. Notification messages for initial Link ID assignments can optionally be enabled for your Universal Identity instance.
Link ID change notifications
When source records are posted to Universal Identity for a second (or third or Nth) time, in some cases the addition of new attribute values allows Universal Identity to recognize that two previously-distinct identities (with separate Link IDs) are the same person.
When this happens, one or more of the source records will have their Link ID assignment changed from one value to a new value. When this happens, Universal Identity generates a notification message with the details of this change in Link ID assignment.
Link ID notification example
For example, suppose that you post a source record into Universal Identity for Source=A, Native ID=123, and it is assigned Link ID 1b42e5. Then you post a second source record into Universal Identity for Source=B, Native ID=456, and it is assigned Link ID 1b7ab3, because the demographic data available at the time does not suggest that the two source records are the same person.
Later, you post a third source record into Universal Identity for Source=C, Native ID=789 – this source record includes additional demographic information that allows Universal Identity to realize that all three source records are the same person.
The three source records are therefore all assigned a single Link ID, 1b42e5. This means that the Source=B, Native ID=456 record has been assigned a different Link ID than its original assignment. This LinkI D change must be communicated back to you in order to stay in sync.
Link ID assignments can also change when the following web services are invoked:
- postIdentity
- reactivateSourceWs
- linkIdentities
- unlinkIdentities
- mergeIdentities
- unmergeIdentities
- deleteSourceIdentity