What is an anonymous or unknown user?
A user is unknown when they have not provided any login details or are browsing as a guest.
What is the registered or known user?
A user is known or registered when they have provided PII, such as an Email address, phone number, or UserID, to sign up or log in. A registered user must be assigned a unique identifier. The identifier can be set differently depending on the platform and integration methods.
Which identifiers should I use?
It is based on your business requirements. Insider One is flexible in the usage of the identifiers.
I have set the email limit to 2, but I do not see both values under User Profiles. What is the reason?
User Profiles show user attributes and events. Attributes are the latest values, so you will see the most recent values of related identifiers, not both.
I want to change the priorities, limits, or blocked values I set. How should I proceed?
Since it involves highly critical settings, Insider One will be available throughout the process to help avoid mistakes. Contact the Insider One team with your inquiries.
Which blocked values should I use to avoid any faulty merging?
Based on previous experiences, values such as “undefined,” “anonymous,” “0”, “1”, and “null” should be blocked to avoid unwanted merging scenarios.
How does Insider One prevent duplicate users from being created?
If an attribute in the IRM is added as an identifier, it is written to the profile only during the identity flow, preventing duplicate users.
If you make changes to the settings, the identity associations of existing users will not be affected.
How does Insider One use identifiers to unify user profiles across online and offline touchpoints?
Insider One uses identifiers, such as email, phone number, or UUID, to recognize and merge user interactions across different channels into a single, unified customer profile. When a user interacts anonymously (for example, by browsing a website), Insider One creates an anonymous profile for them. Once the user provides an identifier, such as an email address, Insider One matches it against existing records in the Unified Customer Database (UCD). If it finds a match, it merges the data into that profile; if not, it creates a new profile.
You can also refer to the video below to better understand how Insider One uses identifiers to unify user profiles across online and offline channels:
How does Insider One handle user profiles when the priority one identifier is missing?
When a priority one identifier isn’t provided, Insider One uses lower-priority identifiers to match incoming requests to existing profiles. If a match is found, Insider One either completes the existing profile with the missing identifier, updates it with new information, or merges multiple matching profiles, provided that the combined identifiers remain within the allowed limits. This ensures user profiles remain accurate and unified even without the top-priority identifier.
You can also refer to the video below to better understand how Insider One handles user profiles when priority one identifiers are missing, including completing existing profiles, updating profiles without top-priority identifiers, and merging multiple profiles within identifier limits:
What should I consider when selecting and setting up identifiers, and what best practices should I follow?
Choose identifiers that are consistent, unique, and aligned with your business needs. Start with default identifiers like email, phone number, and UUID, and add custom ones only when necessary. Avoid generic or placeholder values, as they can cause incorrect merges. Leave fields blank for anonymous users instead of using placeholders. Test your setup thoroughly across all scenarios before going live, plan your identifier strategy carefully, and consult Insider One’s experts when needed. Doing this ensures accurate profiles, better personalization, and more effective marketing.
You can refer to the video below to better understand how to select and set up identifiers effectively, follow best practices, and ensure they support accurate user recognition across platforms.
What happens to the events of a merged profile?
The merged-away profile's events are carried onto the surviving profile with their original timestamps, within the event retention window and up to 10,000 events per merge. They do not re-trigger campaigns.
Can a profile merge be undone?
Set up your identifiers carefully before go-live, because identification and merges cannot be undone. Once an identifier is tied to a profile's insider_id, it stays tied, and once two profiles are merged, they become one profile and cannot be split back into separate users. The Priority, Value Limit, and Blocked Values settings are what prevent unintended merges, so they are worth getting right up front.
If you need to correct identifier values on a profile later, use the Update Identifiers API and the Delete Identifiers API. These edit the identifiers on a profile. They do not reverse a merge.
Why was a separate profile created when the request contained an email address or phone number that already exists?
A shared value doesn't always unify profiles. Insider One matches profiles only on the identifiers added on the Identity Resolution page, and applies the Priority and Value Limit settings to every request. If attaching the incoming identifiers to the existing profile would exceed a value limit, Insider One matches on the higher-priority identifier only. When that identifier has no match, a new profile is created, even if the lower-priority email address or phone number matches an existing one.
How can I avoid separate profiles when sending data from multiple channels?
Send the same identifiers from every channel, and make sure each one is added on the Identity Resolution page. Identifiers that aren't added are stored as attributes and aren't used for matching.
Use the same format for each identifier across all data sources. For phone numbers, use E.164 format (for example, +495551234567).
Review your Identity Resolution Management Settings before sending identity data from multiple channels. To change the priority or value limits, contact the Insider One team. Merges can't be undone, so confirm your setup before go-live.
How can I correct a profile that was merged by mistake?
You cannot undo a profile merge or split the merged profile back into its original users. You can correct identifiers and remove incorrect data from the surviving profile, but these actions do not reverse the merge.
Before making changes, identify which identifiers, attributes, and events belong to each person. As a precaution, correct the source of the incorrect identifiers before sending either person’s data again.
Before you make corrections
Export the affected profile’s available attributes and events with Export Raw User Data. Select the attributes, event types, parameters, and date range you need, and download the completed export before deleting data. Attributes and events arrive in separate files, which you can join using insider_id.
Treat this export as a reference for your corrections, not as a complete profile backup that you can automatically restore.
Correct identifiers on the surviving profile
Use the API that matches the correction you need:
Replace an incorrect identifier value: Use the Update Identifiers API. The replacement must be the same identifier type. The profile keeps its existing behavioral data and attributes. If the replacement value already belongs to another profile, the request is rejected.
Remove an identifier that should not belong to the profile: Use the Delete Identifiers API. You cannot delete the profile’s only identifier, and identifier deletion cannot be undone.
Changing identifiers does not separate the combined history into its original profiles or reverse the merge.
Remove incorrect events and attributes
Events: Use Event Delete & Update to remove an event that belongs to the other person or correct an event’s parameters. Each request targets exactly one event on one profile. Identify it using a user identifier and a precise timestamp, parameter filters, or both. A request that matches more than one event is rejected.
After an event is deleted or updated, Insider One automatically re-evaluates segments, journeys, and analytics against the corrected event data. No manual recalculation trigger is required.
Attributes: Use the Delete User Attribute API to remove incorrect attributes from the profile. For array-typed attributes, you can remove specific values instead of the entire attribute. Stop the incorrect values from being sent by APIs, SDKs, CRM integrations, and imports first; otherwise, they can be written back after deletion.
Attributes configured as identifiers cannot be deleted with the Delete User Attribute API. Use the Delete Identifiers API for those values.
Identifier and attribute deletions cannot be undone. Check the target profile and the values in each request before sending it.
If you need to delete the entire profile
Profile deletion is permanent and cannot be undone. Export the available data you need before proceeding.⁷
To delete the profile in the panel:
Go to Audience > User Profiles.
Open the affected profile.
Click Delete User Profile at the top-right corner of the Basic Information section.
Only users with the Administrator or Editor role can delete a profile in the panel. You can also delete a profile with the Delete User Profile API.
Before you send either person’s data again
As a precaution, check that every identifier in each request belongs to that person. Insider One attempts to merge profiles when an incoming identification request matches multiple existing profiles, subject to the configured identifier priorities and limits.
Do not assume that deleting one identifier guarantees a separate profile on the next request. Review the complete identifier set before resending data, then verify the resulting profiles.
If you import historical events through the Upsert User Data API, use skip_hook: true to prevent those imported events from triggering Architect journeys or data streams. Without this flag, historical events can trigger active journeys and streams when their conditions match.
Event retention is calculated from the event timestamp. Events whose timestamps fall outside their retention period may therefore be unavailable after re-import.