• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, March 4, 2010

Setting the stage for a Federal Trade Commission crackdown on companies that violate Web users' privacy, the Senate last night confirmed two new commissioners -- Julie Brill and Edith Ramirez.

Brill, who previously worked for the North Carolina Department of Justice and the Vermont Attorney General's office, has a track record of supporting privacy laws. In 2001 she received an award from Privacy International for her work in Vermont, where she helped spearhead a law requiring banks to obtain consumers' written opt-in consent before sharing information about them with third parties.

The confirmations come as the FTC is taking a hard look at practices used by online ad companies. The commission has proposed that ad companies notify consumers about behavioral targeting -- which involves tracking people online and then serving them ads based on sites visited -- and allow people to opt out.

For now, the FTC says that the industry should voluntarily self-regulate. But chairman Jon Leibowitz has indicated that online ad companies are running out of time to prove they can do so. Last year, speaking at the Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit, Leibowitz said that the online ad industry "is pretty close to its last clear chance to demonstrate" it can police itself.

Of course, even without new regulations, the FTC already has the ability to target businesses that don't follow their privacy policies. For instance, companies that state they allow consumers to opt out of targeting and then ignore or subvert those choices could well find themselves in the commission's crosshairs.

In fact, David Vladeck, head of the FTC's consumer protection bureau, has already warned that the commission is poised to take action against such companies. He recently said that the commission hopes to soon announce enforcement actions regarding "practices that undermine the tools that consumers can use to opt out of behavioral advertising."

That might only be the beginning.