Congress May Act on Identity Theft

Members of the U.S. Congress on Thursday said they supported some kind of regulation to limit the amount of data agencies can collect without federal oversight. Several Democratic lawmakers said they are preparing to introduce legislation to limit the activities of data profilers like ChoicePoint, and several key Republicans seemed receptive to the issue.

"Our system of protecting people's identity is virtually nonexistent in this country," said Sen. Charles Schumer. Schumer Thursday held a press conference where he showed that his aides were able to find out personal information, including Social Security numbers, of Paris Hilton, Brad Pitt and even Vice President Dick Cheney.

Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said that the House of Representatives would also be acting. "I intend to discover methods by which data security can be strengthened against internal hackers and other identity thieves," he said.

Congress will not be getting much resistance from ChoicePoint, which appeared to be ready to accept regulation in light of recent events. "We welcome the opportunity to participate in any national discussion on the responsible use of information," spokesman Chuck Jones told Reuters news service.

The ChoicePoint identity theft scandal has affected nearly 145,000 people across all fifty states, with nearly a quarter of them from the state of California alone. So far, one person has been convicted of charges related to the crime - a Nigerian resident was sentenced to 16 months last week for accessing consumer profiles under a fake business name.