FTC urgers laws to protect consumers' privacy

— -- The U.S. Federal Trade Commission called on Congress to enact laws to protect individuals' online privacy and pressed companies to speed self-regulation, stepping up its drive to give Internet users more control over their personal data.

The FTC said in a report Monday that privacy legislation should include providing consumers access to the information amassed on them by so-called data brokers. The report also said companies should build privacy practices into every stage of product development, give consumers simple choices about privacy and make data practices transparent, including for mobile use.

"Americans have enthusiastically migrated more and more of their lives online," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a news conference Monday in Washington, D.C., after the report was released. "As a result we have had to ask how can consumers continue to enjoy the riches of a thriving online and mobile marketplace without surrendering their privacy as the price of admission."

The privacy framework envisioned by the agency would for the first time impose limits on the collection and use of consumer data to deliver targeted ads by companies including Google and Facebook. Those constraints might curb the surging online advertising market.

Online ad revenue swelled to $32 billion last year, up 23% from 2010, according to eMarketer, a New York-based research firm. EMarketer estimated sales from online advertising will rise to about $53 billion by 2014.

The FTC has stepped up enforcement of privacy breaches and settled complaints in the past year against companies including Google, Facebook and Twitter.

The FTC recommendations, which build on an initial report issued in December 2010, coincides with efforts by the Obama administration to advance online privacy protections. Last month, the White House released a so-called consumer-privacy bill of rights, saying it would work with companies and consumer groups to develop voluntary industry codes of conduct around those principles.