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The White House is following the lead of the European Union in advocating for new Internetprivacy laws which put consumers interests ahead of those of cyber-businesses, policy analysts told The Daily Caller.

According to a report released last week by the Obama administration, Internet browserpurveyors are using tracking technology to monitor consumers online behavior and lists of thewebsites they visit. That information is resold to marketers who send targeted, customized ads to the consumers computers or smartphones.

The new Internet privacy principles announced last week by the administration are intendedto lead to new laws protecting the public from some privacy-averse policies of companies likeApple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook.

This administrations proposal asks Congress to codify the new rights, which include grantingthe federal government more police power. The Federal Trade Commission would beempowered with direct enforcement authority to ensure consumer data privacy, according tothe strategy.

Overall, the Obama proposal includes seven principles to protect consumer privacy online, WhiteHouse aides told reporters last week in a telephone briefing.

The proposed rules would also include an enforceable code of conduct that Internet companieswould have to comply with, or face litigation or civil penalties, under the expanded FTC power.That agencys power is currently more limited.

A statute that allows the FTC to enforce the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights directly wouldprovide flexibility and permit the FTC to address emerging privacy issues through specificenforcement actions governed by applicable procedural safeguards, the White House said in itsreport.

The Obama administration proposal mimics policy ideas being put forth in Europe, DarrenHayes, a computer forensics and security expert at Pace University in New York, told TheDC.

The online privacy and data protection laws are aimed at providing a shield to consumersin Europe from unsavory marketing practices, Hayes said. Legal journals in the U.S. haveadvocated the European approach for years, he said, claiming its regulations were moresophisticated than the wild west mentality that has prevailed in U.S. Internet culture since the 1990s.

The administration and observers are referring to the proposal informally as the Do Not Trackmeasure.

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White House follows EU’s lead with new Internet ‘rules of the road’