A data detector scans text for terms such as names, post codes or numbers in order to make live links to related information, or in other ways help the user. They may use lookups in dictionaries or databases for named entiries (movie titles, names of places), regular expressions for pattern structured items (such as book ISBNs or telephone numbers), or more complex rules. You probably have encountered datadetectors in email messages identifying URLs to make them live links, or dates and times to suggest adding a caneldar event.
snipit.org: