Definition of dedupe

process that uses matching logic to eliminate file records that are duplicates (dupes); also called dupe combine. There are different strengths of dedupe computer programs based on the objectives of the file user. For example, if a product being sold by the file user is inappropriate for apartment dwellers, then households with the same street address but different apartment numbers are dupes and are thereby eliminated from the list. If several rented lists are being deduped during a merge/purge, a priority statement must be built into the dedupe program matching logic to indicate which lists dupes should be removed from. Random prioritization protects list owners from being disproportionately penalized for duplicate records by removing dupes from the lists on a random basis. Payment is made to the list owners for names remaining after the dedupe process, so the fewer dupes removed from their list, the more they are paid. For example, if List A and List B duplicate eight records, four of the duplicates are removed from List A and four are removed from List B, thus reducing their rental revenue equally.