Senzing is a technology company that produces software that conducts “entity resolution,” ¹ or the use of artificial intelligence to match data and clean up data sets. ² Its software is used for voter roll clean-up and to identify unregistered persons eligible to vote for the multistate project known as the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). ^{3 4}

History and Leadership

Senzing founder Jeffrey Jonas originally developed the concept of Senzing’s entity resolution technology while working at IBM Corporation in 2009. ⁵ By 2012, Jonas’s concept, then called G2, became commercially viable. In 2016, Senzing was formed after IBM Corporation spun off the G2 technology and team ⁶ and in 2018, Senzing formally launched its entity resolution technology of the same name. ⁷

Jeffrey Jonas is the founder and CEO of Senzing. ⁸ Previously, Jonas worked at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). ⁹ As of July 2022, Jonas sits on the Privacy and Technology Advisory Board for Electronic Registration Information Center, ¹⁰ is a fellow at EPIC, and sits on the advisory board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He is also a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). ¹¹

Senzing has no physical headquarters and had 20 full-time, remote employees as of a 2018 New York Times report. ^{12 13}

Activities and Funding

Senzing is a technology company that focuses on the concept of “entity resolution” ¹⁴ in which artificial intelligence is used to match data and clean up data sets, ¹⁵ including voter rolls in states ¹⁶ that are a part of the multistate project known as the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which is sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts. ¹⁷ While Senzing founder Jeffrey Jonas was still working at IBM, Senzing’s precursor G2 was used to help modernize U.S. voter registration by the Pew Charitable Trusts. ¹⁸

ERIC has used Senzing to identify eligible voters and cleans up voter rolls since 2014. Since 2012, ERIC has identified at least 26 million people who are eligible but unregistered to vote and 10 million registered voters who have moved, appear on more than one voter list, or who have died. ¹⁹

According to the New York Times, Senzing’s software played a role in encouraging voter turnout in the 2018 midterm elections through its use in conjunction with ERIC. ²⁰ Also in 2018, Senzing CEO Jeffrey Jonas spoke with left-leaning election law advocate David Becker of the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Election Innovation and Research at a 2018 conference. Becker asserted that ERIC has been the single largest voter registration drive in history and that “none of it would have been possible without the technology Jeff [Jonas] gave to ERIC.” ²¹

Senzing entity resolution software is also used by Code for America, IBM Corporation, Lockheed Martin, and others. ²²

1. ^[1] “Data Integrity as a method for Preserving Democracy.” Senzing YouTube. Posted November 9, 2018. Accessed July 23, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuuabgmbMD0&t=85s
2. “Home.” Senzing. Accessed July 23, 2022. https://senzing.com/.
3. Lohr, Steve. “Another Use for A.I.: Finding Millions of Unregistered Voters.” New York Times. November 5, 2018. Accessed via Web Archive July 23, 2022. https://archive.ph/cDcKJ.
4. “FAQ’s.” Electronic Registration Information Center. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://ericstates.org/.
5. “Jeff Jonas.” LinkedIn Profile. Accessed July 22, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-jonas/.
6. “Our Story.” Senzing. Accessed July 23, 2022. https://senzing.com/about/.
7. Meyer, Nastassia. “Privacy by Design History & Features of Senzing.” Senzing. December 10, 2018. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://senzing.com/privacy-by-design-pbd-in-senzing/.
8. “Jeff Jonas.” LinkedIn. Accessed July 22, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-jonas/.
9. “Jeff Jonas.” LinkedIn. Accessed July 22, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-jonas/.
10. “Who We Are.” Electronic Registration Information Center. Accessed July 23, 2022. https://ericstates.org/who-we-are/.
11. “Jeff Jonas.” Senzing. Accessed July 23, 2022. https://senzing.com/jeff-jonas/.
12. Lohr, Steve. “Another Use for A.I.: Finding Millions of Unregistered Voters.” New York Times. November 5, 2018. Accessed via Web Archive July 23, 2022. https://archive.ph/cDcKJ.
13. “Entity Information.” SilverFlume, Nevada’s Business Portal. Accessed July 23, 2022. https://esos.nv.gov/EntitySearch/BusinessInformation.
14. “Data Integrity as a method for Preserving Democracy.” Senzing YouTube. Posted November 9, 2018. Accessed July 23, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuuabgmbMD0&t=85s.
15. “Home.” Senzing. Accessed July 23, 2022. https://senzing.com/.
16. “FAQ’s.” Electronic Registration Information Center. Accessed July 24, 2022. https://ericstates.org/.
17. Lohr, Steve. “Another Use for A.I.: Finding Millions of Unregistered Voters.” New York Times. November 5, 2018. Accessed via Web Archive July 23, 2022. https://archive.ph/cDcKJ.
18.  “Jeff Jonas.” Senzing. Accessed July 23, 2022. https://senzing.com/jeff-jonas/.
19. Lohr, Steve. “Another Use for A.I.: Finding Millions of Unregistered Voters.” New York Times. November 5, 2018. Accessed via Web Archive July 23, 2022. https://archive.ph/cDcKJ.
20. Lohr, Steve. “Another Use for A.I.: Finding Millions of Unregistered Voters.” New York Times. November 5, 2018. Accessed via Web Archive July 23, 2022. https://archive.ph/cDcKJ.
21. “Data Integrity as a method for Preserving Democracy.” Senzing YouTube. Posted November 9, 2018. Accessed July 23, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuuabgmbMD0&t=85s.
22.  “Home.” Senzing. Accessed July 23, 2022. https://senzing.com/.