Reading Between the Lines: Turning Open Data Into Intelligence
The digital economy generates an overwhelming volume of public data every single day — social media posts, product reviews, crypto wallet transactions, short-term rental listings, sales on digital storefronts, and much more. This data is freely accessible, but rarely actionable. It’s scattered, noisy, and lacking structure. For tax authorities, the challenge isn’t how to collect more data — it’s how to make sense of what’s already out there. Public data holds enormous untapped value — if you know how to read between the lines.
Every Activity Leaves a Trail
In today’s digital world, almost everything leaves a trail: an online review, a delivery app profile, a public crypto transaction, a tagged Instagram story. These fragments of public data — seemingly innocent and unconnected — often contain the signals of economic activity. But recognizing those signals requires more than access. It demands the ability to interpret them in the right context.
The Challenge of Open Data
Open data is abundant — but not easily usable. Billions of data points exist across public platforms. But this data is fragmented, inconsistent, and stripped of context. On its own, it doesn't tell a story. It creates noise.
For tax authorities, more data isn’t necessarily better. The real challenge is knowing which data reflects meaningful economic behavior — and which is just background noise.
From Data to Intelligence
At IVIX, we work to bridge the gap between noise and insight.
Our process transforms public data into structured intelligence by combining behavioral analysis, entity resolution, graph-based relationship mapping, and machine learning — turning scattered signals into clear, actionable insights, all without relying on private records.
How do we do this? The process generally follows four major steps:
- Collection – Every insight begins with the right data. We collect public data from a wide range of sources — marketplaces, social media, open registries, crypto platforms, and more. Our focus isn’t just on volume, but on quality and relevance, using specialized tools to ensure the data we gather reflects real economic activity.
- Clustering – Connecting the dots across platforms. We find and link related data points — such as names, phone numbers, wallets, and usernames — building those data points into an entity (could be a person or business). We identify different characteristics of those entities, and link them together to tell a story. As a result, we are able to identify recurring actors, even when they appear under different aliases. This creates a holistic view of economic behavior.
- Behavioral Analysis – Distinguishing signal from noise. We analyze transaction patterns — frequency, scale, timing, and cross-platform consistency — to identify business-like operations. This helps reveal economic activity that might otherwise remain hidden.
- Actionable Insight – Turning patterns into priorities. By translating data patterns into risk indicators and investigative leads, we help tax authorities focus on the most impactful areas of non-reported economic activity — making enforcement smarter and more efficient.
The outcome: clear, actionable intelligence based on observable patterns — delivered automatically, at scale, and in real-time. IVIX’s process is completely automated, enabling our technology to rapidly and efficiently sift through vast amounts of public data, turning complexity into clarity and helping tax authorities focus their efforts where it matters most.
Why This Matters for Tax Authorities
This kind of intelligence helps reveal what was previously invisible. Traditional enforcement tools rely heavily on self-reporting, audits, or tips — limited and resource-intensive approaches. But the digital economy is fast-moving, decentralized, and dynamic. Often, by the time something reaches an audit, it's already behind the curve.
With structured insight from public data, authorities can:
- Detect emerging trends and low-visibility sectors
- Identify repeat players potentially operating without formal registration
- Allocate enforcement resources more efficiently, based on behavioral evidence — not assumptions
This approach empowers tax authorities to see what matters, act where it counts, and stay ahead in a fast-moving digital economy — with greater clarity, smarter resource allocation, and the ability to uncover economic activity that would otherwise remain hidden.
A Real-World Example
To see the process in action, let’s look at a real-world example. A small Instagram account with just 12,000 followers posts three “gifted” brand collaborations per week. The account doesn’t have a registered business but regularly promotes restaurants, beauty clinics, and product bundles — sometimes linking to external order forms or payment pages.
None of this is hidden. It’s publicly available, in plain sight. But without connecting the dots — frequency, commercial partnerships, and behavior — it’s easy to miss the bigger picture. By identifying these open data patterns, such business activity can be recognized and categorized, even in the absence of formal registration.
The Future of Tax Intelligence
The future of tax intelligence won’t rely on uncovering secrets — it will rely on identifying signals. Secrets are hidden by design: private records, closed systems, and behind-the-scenes transactions. Signals are already out there — public data points like posts, listings, transactions, and connections that, when interpreted correctly, reveal economic activity in plain sight.
As the digital economy evolves, tax authorities need tools that can keep pace — tools that help them recognize and respond to economic activity in real time, based on what’s already visible. That’s where IVIX comes in: transforming signals into actionable intelligence.
Learn more about how IVIX transforms signals into actionable intelligence in IVIX VP of R&D Dan Volfman's blog, "Harnessing Big Data and AI: How IVIX Builds Cutting-Edge Solutions From Data to Insights."
