Patent ID: 8490004

Claim:
A method comprising: serving personal attribute information received at a host computer from respective users of a communication service, in a format describing each respective user that originated the personal attribute information; collecting, at the host computer, veracity feedback through the communications service from clients receiving the personal attribute information, the veracity feedback comprising users' opinions concerning veracity of the personal attribute information; determining a veracity score expressing an estimated level of truth for individual items of the personal attribute information based on the veracity feedback, weighted according to reliability factors determined for users that provide the veracity feedback; determining, at the host computer, a risk profile of each respective user that originated the personal attribute information in response to the veracity feedback, determining the reliability factors based at least in part on consistency between feedback from each of the users and feedback from unrelated users regarding other personal attribute information; serving the veracity score from the host computer to indicate a veracity estimate for items of the personal attribute information based on the users' opinions; and serving the risk profile from the host computer to indicate a relative likelihood of truthfulness of the individual items of the personal attribute information based on the veracity feedback.