(CBS/AP) When Elizabeth Mazur found a census taker's business card stuck inside her door last fall, she dutifully called the number and agreed to take part in a monthly survey on income and poverty.

Some questions were personal: Who did she live with? How much money did she make? Where were her parents born?

Mazur, a 29-year-old lawyer in Chicago, said she was happy to answer. But after hearing that Census Bureau workers have lost 672 laptop computers since 2001, including 246 that contained personal data, she's not sure she'd do it again.

"You hear stories about people, schemers pretending to be a bank employee," Mazur said. "Knowing there have been problems (at the Census Bureau), I would be less willing to do it if somebody I didn't know called me."

The Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, this week became the latest federal agency to acknowledge losing laptop computers containing sensitive information. Overall, the department has lost or had stolen 1,137 laptops since 2001 — the largest number of computers that any agency has publicly acknowledged losing.

CBS News obtained records that show that one computer after another just walked out the door after employees quit or were fired.

All the computers containing personal information were protected by passwords or encryption technology. Still, the disclosure raises questions about the government's ability to protect sensitive information, said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va.

At least eight other federal agencies have reported computers with sensitive information lost, stolen or illegally accessed in recent months. The biggest case was at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which had a computer containing the personal information of 26.5 million veterans and military personnel stolen. The computer was eventually recovered with no data accessed.

"The reality is, we are incapable of storing, moving and accessing information," said Davis, who vowed to pursue legislation to improve security. "The American people deserve better from their government." Davis chairs the House Government Reform Committee, which has requested information about lost or stolen computers from all Cabinet agencies. He hopes to compile a report by next week.

Other embarrassing mishaps include a Navy recruiter who lost 30,000 records when a bag holding his laptop fell off his motorcycle in August. The Department of Education lost personal information of 11,000 federal student aid borrowers and 13,000 others who responded to a study, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.

©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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