Inaccuracies in Professional Role and Company Data on Find People Search

Ciaran E. · 2025-11-20T14:41:03.318Z

Using the find people search, the value for title and company is for someone is for their role 12 years ago. Why is this and how widespread are these inaccuracies?

Inaccuracies in Professional Role and Company Data on Find People Search | Clay

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Find People data can show outdated information because it relies on third-party data providers that may not have the most current records. The data refreshes on a rolling basis with a full update cycle taking 2–3 weeks, and some data sources have refresh rates as slow as 3 months.
Data naturally becomes outdated over time as people change jobs and companies - this is a common challenge called "data decay."
For the most current information, use "Enrich Person from Profile" which pulls real-time data and is much closer to current profile states.
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Is that what you were looking for?
Ciaran E.
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OK, but how was this person's data 12 years old?
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Data can become extremely outdated because our data providers have varying refresh rates, with the slowest being 3 months. However, data naturally becomes outdated over time as people change jobs and companies - this is called "data decay."
In cases of 12-year-old data, this likely represents a record that hasn't been updated by the original data source for an extended period, possibly due to the person having limited online presence or the data provider not having access to their current information.
For current information, use "Enrich Person from Profile" which pulls real-time data.
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Did that answer your question?
Ciaran E.
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This effectively makes "find people" totally untrustworthy, how do I know which sources to trust and which not? The was a director at ford motor co
Clay Support
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We don't have native data - we aggregate from 100+ external providers, so you can choose which sources to trust. Use our waterfall feature to search multiple providers in order and only pay when a result is found.
We test provider accuracy using confidence scoring - providers get scored on correct person matching from 0-100% based on verification criteria. Our testing shows data coverage and accuracy varies by provider and region.
For current data on high-profile contacts like Ford directors, use "Enrich Person from Profile" which pulls real-time information instead of Find People's snapshot data.
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Does this explanation help clarify your concerns?
Ciaran E.
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OK but if I want to find "all directors at ford motor co" how can I find them if clay says they work for apple???
Ciaran E.
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Enrich profile would never work in that circumstance as they could work for any company in the world
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Use Find People with company-specific filters to find current directors at Ford Motor Co. Set up your search with Ford's domain or company profile URL as the company identifier, then filter by job title "Director" to find people currently working there.
The search filters by current company association, so it will only return people who are presently at Ford according to our data providers. You can access this through Actions > "Find People at These Companies" and specify Ford as your target company.
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Is this method clear for your search needs?
Ciaran E.
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Connect me to a human, please
Clay Support
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I understand, I’m connecting you to a human agent who can assist you further.
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