Tax ID numbers are a good solution for companies in the US, as they're unique. Same with Taxpayer IDs (SSN) for employees. I use both as primary keys (or at least unique keys) in databases I develop. Short of placing a phone call, there's not much way to assure a company representative. Best left to the accounting types to review your data. I generally place a 90 day "no activity" flag on things -- as in they come up for review after 90 days of no activity, but this would obviously depend completely on the application. A 90 day review would be silly in an application where someone only visits yearly for an annual renewal. Dennis Gearon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: How do you guys uniquely identify companies within your mysql databases, both foreign and domestic? Tax ID numbers? Name and State and City(US) Other? In the database I am designing the <PublicMembers> are identified by email/login/person/member(num), and only has financial capabilities with my company via a credit card. Also, How does everyone verify that Joe Smuckatelli is ACTUALLY the representative for Johnson and Johnson company, has the positioned claimed, has authority to allow J-n-J logo's to be placed on my site, and can commit to billed accounts, or enter private company data to be processed and displayed on my site? (J-&-J is a 'fictitious' name and I am certainly not dealing yet with the real McCoy) And Finally, How often do you reverify both active and inactive accounts/logins, what limits do you put on account activity before flagging that account for researching? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before posting, please check: http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php