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The Madison Avenue Field GuideA field guide to marketing & advertising, by Brandon Mina

GlossaryPrivacy & IdentityProbabilistic Matching

Privacy & Identity

Probabilistic Matching

Linking identities using statistical signals such as IP address and device type.

By Brandon MinaCEO, BrandPilot AIUpdated November 2026

Short answer

Probabilistic matching is linking identities using statistical signals, such as IP address, device type, location and browsing patterns, to estimate that different identifiers likely belong to the same person or household. It extends reach beyond logged-in users but is less accurate than deterministic matching and faces growing privacy restrictions.