Americans depend on the Internet for both their personal and professional lives, and protecting their personal information online is important. With cybersecurity and data breach threats occurring more frequently, Congress is ramping up a bipartisan effort on Capitol Hill to pass legislation that lays out standards for how companies must use and protect consumers’ personal information. Earlier this month, Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation that would hold companies more accountable for the data they collect about consumers.

This week, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) invited the chief executives of Apple and Google to a mobile privacy hearing on May 10. "As Congress considers updates to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and other Federal privacy laws, it is essential that the Senate Judiciary Committee have full and accurate information about the privacy risks posed by this new technology," Leahy said.

After the latest data breach, Representative Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) announced she plans to introduce legislation to protect consumer data on the Internet. The latest data breach "reinforces my long-held belief that much more needs to be done to protect sensitive consumer information. Americans should be quickly informed when their personal information has been hacked, especially in the instances where there is an obvious potential for large scale identify theft," commented Rep. Bono Mack.