Despite the seemingly unending torrent of citizens' data pouring into the hands of identity thieves, Congress is unlikely to pass any data-security bills by the end of the year, according to Hill watchers. After the nationwide uproar when ChoicePoint admitted it sold 145,000 dossiers to Nigerian identity thieves, 20 states followed California's lead and passed laws requiring companies to notify citizens when their data had been compromised.

Now, companies are already acting as if the country had a national notification law, said Gail Hillebrand, a senior attorney at Consumers Union. In addition, Hillebrand said the strict state laws are more consumer-friendly than any proposals in Congress.

"I would rather see Congress fail to act than pass a weak federal bill that gives less notice than consumers are already getting due to stronger state laws," Hillebrand said.

The link for this article located at Wired News is no longer available.