Proofile is a personal data management service, allowing users to save basic information about themselves and share it across different social networks. Their promise is not a new one:

Are you fed up with entering your birth date, your interests and your
pet's names all over again, everytime when joining yet another web site? […] The data you enter into proofile is readily available to other web services, if you choose to export it.

Proofile does the obviously right thing by relying upon OpenID for authentication and is consistently positioned as an
attributes hub for digital identity on the Networked Identity map.

Wide adoption of open standards is definitely a point in their favour, and it is undoubtedly a useful service, but I wonder whether its added value faces harsh competition from well established OpenID providers themselves, that might have the last word in managing a basic core of personal data – especially the information that is regarded as strictly connected with identity itself …such as the fundamental attributes that make a person identifiable not only by a machine.