We've already blogged generally about the Federal Trade Commission's "Exploring Privacy" roundtable and asked you to sign onto the ACLU of Northern California's petition demanding more transparency about when and why companies share our information with the government and others.

On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will be in California for the second of its "Exploring Privacy" roundtables. The ACLU will be there sounding the alarm about privacy implications of social networking and cloud computing services. (Check back here for blog posts drilling down into each of these services, with specific recommendations for how the FTC can improve privacy in these areas.) We want to make sure the FTC knows that the time is now to address growing online privacy issues.

Back in July 2008, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a new policy regarding searches of documents and electronic devices at the border. CBP asserts it has the right to conduct these searches of any traveler – citizens and noncitizen alike "absent individualized suspicion," – meaning no suspicion of wrongdoing is even required to conduct a search.

Computerworld is reporting that the hacking attack on Google (which prompted it to tell the Chinese government it would no longer censor on its behalf) exploited a system the company set up to help the government access its users' data:

Over the past several years, there have been two reliable things about Facebook: it has often stated that privacy was important to the company – two years ago, privacy was "the vector around which Facebook operates" – and its actions have often contradicted that.

As we start a new year, it doesn't look like much has changed.

On January 5, President Obama addressed airport security in remarks responding to the Christmas Day attack on a plane headed for Detroit.

The following can be attributed to Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union:

The ACLU recently submitted a statement about behavioral advertising to the Joint Subcommittee Hearing of the House Energy & Commerce Committee. The statement explained that wide collection of personal information of a consumer "draws a personal portrait unprecedented in scope and detail" and asked Congress to pass laws that protect us from having this information accessed and used against us.

With the holiday season underway, travelers are bracing themselves for the countless hassles that come with modern travel. Most have adapted to waiting on long security lines, taking off their shoes and parting with their bottled water. But international travelers often don't realize that they might also have to endure border officials viewing their Web histories. And their financial records. And their vacation photos.