In what apparently is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s backing of the move that Internet users should be able to easily block others from monitoring their online activity, the commission Wednesday said that it proposes to mandate Web browsers’ “do not track” setting, which can only be imposed by an act of Congress.

The proposal by the FTC, which probably is the strongest online privacy protection that the commission has advocated till date, comes in the midst to the intensifying momentum for the government to introduce requisite measures for ensuring consumer privacy online.

Noting that online companies have failed to protect the privacy of Internet users, the FTC said in its Wednesday report: “Consumers live in a world where information about their purchasing behavior, online browsing habits and other online and offline activity is collected, analyzed, combined, used, and shared, often instantaneously and invisibly.”

The FTC recommended a broad outline for commercial use of Web consumer data, proposing that the inclusion of a simple and universal “do not track” setting will essentially give consumers the kind of control they gained over marketers with the countrywide “do not call” registry.

If the “do not track” setting becomes widely used, the mechanism would thwart the ability of Google and other advertisers to sell lucrative targeted ads to users; thereby having a direct impact on online advertising firms and the billions of dollars in business done by them.