Probabilistic record linkage still matters because identity data is messy and match decisions carry real financial and compliance risk. This article explains the intuition behind Fellegi–Sunter and Bayesian record linkage, shows how they control false merges and splits across noisy customer and product records, and points to modern tools and books that help you put these ideas into practice.

Healthcare providers track the same patient under five name variations. Retailers can't tell when the same SKU is under two different codes. CPG companies buy demand data showing one product with three different names across channels. Supply chains have suppliers that are actually the same company. Every week. Same problem. Different domain. Your data doesn't know what it's describing.