"For the past decade, the executive branch has lacked a visible leader on Internet privacy," Swire, now a law professor at Ohio State University, said in an e-mail. "The many changes in the Internet and commercial practices in the past decade mean it is high time to have this sort of leadership position."

The paper should put companies on notice that online privacy is important to the Obama administration, added Lisa Sotto, head of the privacy and information management practice at the Hunton & Williams law firm in New York.

"There has been a real hunger for rules of the road when it comes to domestic privacy issues, and this would put a road map in place," she said. "CEOs ought to sit up and take notice that privacy is a topic they can no longer relegate to the dusty basement."

The IDG News Service