Assistant Commerce Secretary Lawrence Strickling called for the legislation at a hearing on online privacy held by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

"The administration urges Congress to enact a 'consumer privacy bill of rights' to provide baseline consumer data privacy protections," he said.

Strickling said authority to enforce privacy protections should be given to the Federal Trade Commission, which is advocating a "Do Not Track" mechanism that would allow Web users to opt out of having their activities monitored.

"The large-scale collection, analysis, and storage of personal information is becoming more central to the Internet economy," said Strickling the White House's top communications policy advisor.

"These activities help to make the online economy more efficient and companies more responsive to their customer needs," he said.

"We think we can get to a regime that will greatly improve privacy for consumers and still meet the needs of businesses who want to continue to see the growth of the Internet," he said.

The Center for Democracy & Technology welcomed the Obama administration's call for online privacy legislation.

"This is a historic announcement, marking the first time the White House has called for a baseline consumer privacy bill," CDT president Leslie Harris said.