Privacy and the coming backlash.

The article discusses the aspect of identity theft which showed a transformation from reputation-seeking to profit-seeking professionals. Consumer identity is described as the new currency of cyber criminals which are easy to trade and difficult to trace. It further looks into the penalty for a company that loses its employee or consumers data. It is stated that the credit cards companies and banks pass on the cost of fraud to consumers in fees and higher interest rates while the rating agencies use identity theft as a marketing message to sell protection to consumers. It looks into the smaller consumer-credit industry and the firm privacy laws in Europe which protect them from identity theft. It suggests the need for a strong privacy protection regulations in the U.S.