Personal Data Service (PDS) is a personal, digital identity management service controlled by an individual. It gives the user a central point of control for their personal information (e.g. interests, contact information, affiliations, preferences, friends). The user's data attributes being managed by the service may be stored in a co-located repository, or they may be stored multiple external distributed repositories, or a combination of both. Attributes from a PDS may be accessed via an API.