CQ's Ambreen Ali reports the Federal Trade Commission called on Congress to codify baseline privacy protections for online consumers during the release of the agency's final privacy report (PDF) on Monday. The FTC said companies haven't given users enough control over their data, and recommends they build privacy protections into their products as they are developed. The report also calls on companies to give consumers a say in what information is collected from them, and provide clear explanations of the process.

The FTC called on Congress to adopt the recommendations as part of online privacy legislation, along with a second bill that would regulate data brokers, or companies that track, manage, and sell information about consumers. The FTC also plans to pursue voluntary commitments from industry on privacy, similar to the plan outlined by the Obama administration last month. FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz also praised Web companies and advertisers for voluntarily signing onto a Do Not Track option that allows consumers to opt out of some types of information collection. That agreement was announced at a White House press conference last month and reflects a recommendation from an earlier draft of the FTC's privacy report released in December 2010.

Democrats are expected to renew their push for consumer privacy legislation, possibly based on the privacy bill of rights (S 799) introduced last year by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz. The White House also included bill of rights language in its privacy proposal, but House Republicans and the e-commerce industry are expected to strongly resist stringent new online privacy regulations. Tech industry groups began expressing concern about the prospect of privacy regulations soon after the report's release, even as Democrats rushed to praise the FTC.