Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Consumer advocates filed a complaint seeking new federal safeguards for mobile-phone users, a move that may provide an early test of President-elect Barack Obama’s stance on consumer privacy.

Google Inc., owner of the most popular search engine, is among companies “most energetically pushing the envelope” in tracking consumers’ mobile Web-surfing habits in order to target advertisements to them, according to the complaint, which the Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group filed today with the Federal Trade Commission.

U.S. spending on mobile ads may increase to $6.5 billion in 2012 from $1.7 billion last year, according to New York-based researcher EMarketer Inc. Mobile-ad providers are using technology to track the location and Web-browsing habits of users to advertise everything from neighborhood pizza parlors to movie show times.

“Policies governing consumer privacy on the mobile Web have failed to keep pace with these new marketing practices,” said Ed Mierzwinski, director of consumer protection for U.S. PIRG, in an e-mailed statement.

The privacy groups asked the FTC to adopt rules such as new disclosure requirements that would make it easier for consumers to control how information about them is used.

The complaint could become a “keystone test” for the new administration’s approach to Internet privacy, said Rob Enderle, president of the research firm Enderle Group in San Jose, California.

“The Obama administration has made it clear that the Bush administration was way too passive with regard to privacy, and they will want to make a statement,” he said.

Google’s Revenue

Google, based in Mountain View, California, made about 99 percent of its $16.6 billion in 2007 revenue from Internet advertising. Mobile-web advertising is “absolutely critical” to Google’s future as Internet usage moves from personal computers to portable devices, Enderle said.

The company is “keenly aware” of its responsibility to protect Web users’ privacy and wants to work with other companies to develop voluntary guidelines, Google said today in an e-mailed statement.

“Whether it’s for a desktop or for a mobile platform or device, we design products that give users meaningful choices about how they use our services and what information they provide to us,” the company said.

Google gained $1.63 to $314.32 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have declined 52 percent in the past year.

‘Not Playing Favorites’

Obama’s ties to Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt, who campaigned for him, aren’t likely to give Google an advantage as the FTC weighs new privacy rules, Enderle said. Rather, the administration may use the privacy groups’ complaint as an opportunity to “showcase, right out of the gate, that they’re not playing favorites,” he said.

Obama plans to “strengthen privacy protections for the digital age and harness the power of technology to hold government and business accountable for violations of personal privacy,” according to a technology agenda posted on his transition Web site. Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for Obama’s transition team, didn’t return an e-mail seeking comment on the complaint to be filed with the FTC.

More Pressure

The privacy complaint may put more pressure on advertisers such as Google and Microsoft Corp. to develop voluntary mobile- Web safeguards to avert new government rules, said Rebecca Arbogast, a Washington-based analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co.

“Google is likely to take a very reasoned stance and probably work with the government in terms of figuring out measures they might take,” she said.

The privacy groups’ complaint amends two petitions the groups filed in 2006 and 2007, seeking FTC safeguards for so- called behavioral advertising on the Internet, said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. The FTC investigated behavioral advertising in 2007 and proposed guidelines for voluntary industry safeguards.

Still, the FTC has ignored “serious threats” that mobile marketing practices pose to consumer privacy, the privacy groups said in today’s complaint.

To contact the reporter on this story: Molly Peterson in Washington at mpeterson9@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 13, 2009 16:09 EST