In a preferred embodiment of the invention, an authenticating device (22) receives a first digital identity (43) and a second digital identity (63). The authenticating device (22) uses the second digital identity (63) as a key to a Identity Association Database (24) to retrieve a database entry (33). If the database entry (33) shows an association between the first digital identity (43) and the second digital identity (63), the digital identities are valid and an indication (72) of the validation of existence of association between first digital identity and second digital identity (96) is made by the authenticating device (22).