A system and method is provided for confirmation of the identity of a contact on the network. A notification that a nearby user is present on a network is signed with a private key associated with the nearby user. The private key is also associated with a public key. A local user that has the nearby user's public key can verify the signature on the notification and confirm that the nearby user is the source of the notification. The verification of identity of the nearby user allows rich content previously stored for the nearby user to be displayed along with the nearby user's presence information.