Earlier this year, similar prompted lawmakers to abandon efforts to pass two extremely unpopular anti-piracy bills -- the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act.

"We are deeply concerned about the information-sharing component of this bill," said Rainey Reitman activism director at the EFF. "Companies would be allowed to ship any kind of personal information to the government without any judicial oversight."

She added that the law would allow government agencies to bypass existing privacy laws and requirements to obtain court orders to acces personal information in Internet users.

Reps. Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) introduced CISPA in the House in November 2011.

Backers said the legislation would help improve cybersecurity by making it easier for ISPs and companies such as Facebook and Google to collect and share threat information with the government.