A Household ID (HHID) is a stable, cross-device identifier that persists with a household over time.
When Samba TV’s identity graph detects that a set of identifiers (such as Smart TV IDs, cookies, or mobile ad IDs) consistently belong to the same household, that set is assigned a Household ID (HHID).
The graph is anchored by deterministic signals (for example, Samba TV IDs), and extended with other identifiers over time. Individual identifiers within the household may change — new ones appear, others disappear — but the Household ID remains stable.
What goes into a Household ID?
The UIDs linked to a Household ID can come from a variety of sources, including:
- Mobile Advertising IDs (IDFA, GAID, etc.)
- Smart TV Identifiers
- Hashed Email Addresses
- Cookies
- Other device or platform IDs
Household IDs vs. IP Addresses
Households are often (incorrectly) identified only by an IP address. But IPs are unstable: depending on the ISP, a household’s IP may change daily, monthly, or yearly.
By contrast, a Household ID persists across IP changes, making it a more reliable and consistent key for analytics and activation.
Household IDs and Person IDs
A Samba TV device graph may contain both:
- Household IDs (HHIDs): stable, cross-device clusters
- Person IDs (SPUDs): person-level identifiers representing an individual profile
A Household ID can contain multiple Person IDs. In addition, some UIDs (for example, from shared devices like TVs, tablets, or game consoles) may not be linked to any specific Person ID — but they are still included in the household cluster.
Example
Here’s an example of a single household:
| Household ID | Person ID | User ID |
|---|---|---|
| 123 | ABC | ID1 |
| 123 | ABC | ID2 |
| 123 | DEF | ID3 |
| 123 | DEF | ID4 |
| 123 | 0 | ID5 |
In this example:
- HHID 123 is the stable household identifier.
- There are two Person IDs (
ABCandDEF) representing two distinct profiles. - ID5 comes from a shared device that could not be attributed to a specific Person ID.