If you opt to protect your privacy, you'll regret it. That's what some businesses apparently would like consumers to think.

Privacy is set to become even more of a key issue for businesses and government over the next few months, as some firms fight to retain what they believe is a key provision of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a federal law that restricts who can access credit information and how it can be used.

A provision of the act, slated to expire next January, restricts states' abilities to pass privacy laws. If the state preemption provision is allowed to expire, it could open the way for states to pass their own laws determining how consumer information may be shared by businesses.

The implications of handing over privacy legislation to states was being quietly discussed during coffee breaks and after hours at last week's Privacy & American Business conference here.

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