Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal wants to prevent tracking of consumers' online activity.
Blumenthal, who will become a U.S. Senator next month, submitted testimony calling on Congress to institute an internet do-not-track law, much like the do-not-call lists that exist for telemarketers.
"Holding internet data indefinitely is deeply disturbing and disquieting -- a 1984ish nightmare," Blumenthal said in the statement.
He asked the House Subcommitttee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection to create a bill that would require any group that collects consumers' data over the internet to get permission from users before tracking them. The committee held a hearing on the issue Thursday.
"Consumers must not sacrifice privacy to surf the net," Blumenthal said. "Legal internet activity -- what we search for, what sites we visit, what we buy and read -- is nobody's business. Spying to sell products is still spying, an insidious and intolerable violation of the right to privacy and being left alone.
Websites often use "cookies" to monitor what visitors are looking at or buying in order to target advertisements to those users.
"Congress should implement the closest possible internet equivalent of the do-not-call list, enabling consumers to say a simple 'no' to snoopers," Blumenthal said.
