This proposal suggests enhancing our duplicate checking logic for specific protection profiles to balance hijack protection and reduce duplicate profiles. Currently, it is recommended to disable duplicate checking is disabled for Medium, High, and Extreme protection profiles to bolster hijack protection. However, this approach can result in an increased number of duplicates, especially considering more active individuals typically fall in more protected categories.

To address this, we propose a two-tiered approach:

Continued Evaluation for Low Protection Profiles: Individuals with Low Protection profiles would undergo duplicate checking using the existing logic.

Additional Checks for Medium, High, and Extreme Protection Profiles: For individuals with these profiles, I propose introducing additional checks that allow duplicate checking and matching to proceed as long no authentication-related information is altered or introduced.

We therefore can proceed with duplicate checking and the matching process as long as:

1. An email address isn't being added or updated
2. A phone number isn't being added updated
3. A user account isn't being added or updated

Ministry Need Review:

This proposal directly addresses the challenge of balancing hijack protection with the management of duplicate profiles. Currently, 20% of active accounts are categorized under Medium, High, or Extreme protection profiles. Duplicate profiles can create various issues within our system, including but not limited to:

1. Users facing difficulties accessing features associated with their primary profile when logged into a duplicate profile, and vice versa.
   
2. Staff encountering confusion when making decisions based solely on information from either a person's primary profile or their duplicate profile.
3. Specialized administrators spending extra time evaluating and merging profiles, which could be more effectively utilized elsewhere.

If you are curious to see your protection profile breakdown for active people you can run this sql (https://pastebin.com/WFHQsmLm)