HR 3997 might be a bill to watch if you’re concerned about your data getting sold to identity thieves by companies like ChoicePoint

Remember them? They’re battling the US Government to reach the finals in the Worst Company in America poll.

Check it out, after the jump.

At stake is Congress’ consideration of HR 3997, which Ed Mierzwinski of US PIRG calls the “worst bill ever.” According to his blog entry, sent in to us by Chris of Epic.org, Ed claims the bill would:

• “Fail to even lightly regulate the activities of data brokers like ChoicePoint, the unregulated company that sold 163,000 dossiers to identity thieves (other than to subject them to the same weak data security rules that shoe stores would be subject to under HR 3997).”
• “Establish a trigger for data breach notification that experts believe would result in no notices to consumers, because the standard is too high. We only know about the 100 breaches that have occurred since Choicepoint because of the strong California trigger.”
• “Expressly disallow state Attorneys General from protecting their citizens from privacy invasions.”

Read and decide for thyself, oh consumer. Also read this letter signed by 10 groups, some of the consumer advocacy groups (we can tell because the word consumer is in their name) opposing the bill.

The House Financial Services Committee is slated to begin voting on HR 3997 beginning today.

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