Patent ID: 8819413

Claim:
A method of verifying the veracity of identity information comprising: providing user identification information to an identification management system; contacting a plurality of trusted authorities, separate from the identification management system, to verify the user identification information; combining verification information provided by each of the plurality of trusted authorities to form a statistical truth regarding the user identification information, wherein the statistical truth comprises a binary determination of whether the user identification information is accurate based on a comparison of the plurality of the trusted authorities, wherein the information is deemed accurate if more than half of the plurality of trusted authorities are in agreement; storing the verification information from the plurality of trusted authorities to a validity database for use in subsequently verifying user identification, wherein the validity database is maintained locally as part of the identification management system, separate from the trusted authorities, wherein the validity database comprises a set of valid identity claims, wherein each valid identity claim comprises an identity and a plurality of trusted authorities used to validate the claim; and responding to a request from a third party to indicate whether a provided identity claim is valid based upon whether the provided identity claim is present in the validity database.