Data Decay
The Short Answer
Data decay is the natural loss of accuracy in a database over time as people change jobs, emails, phone numbers, and addresses. Every contact database decays continuously: without regular refreshes, an increasing share of records go stale, bounce, or point to the wrong person. Refresh frequency is one of the most important factors in evaluating any data provider.
How It Works
People change jobs, emails, phone numbers, and addresses continuously. Every one of those changes turns a previously accurate record into a stale one, and the effect compounds the longer a database goes without being refreshed.
Why It Matters
A database that looked accurate a year ago can already have a meaningful share of stale records today. Refresh frequency is one of the clearest signals of data quality when evaluating any provider.
Related Terms
See It In Action
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