VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION OF EXTERNALLY MAINTAINED PROFILE ATTRIBUTES

Independent verification of user profile attributes that are stored on third-party community-based web sites is provided. A user request indicates target profile attributes to verify. Profile attribute data concerning a profile owner is collected from a plurality of community sites. The collected data is verified, and results of the verification process are stored in a database. When a user views verified profile attributes on a page on a community site, the corresponding stored verification status is retrieved, and an indication of the trust status of the profile is output to the user, for example by modifying the displayed web page to display the trust status.