Director of Privacy and Robotics at the Center for Internet and Society Ryan Calo discussed increasing concerns over online privacy in the following article written by the San Francisco Chronicle's James Temple.

As we approach this year's Data Privacy Day, some experts believe we've begun to see real momentum in the field, as consumers become more conscious of the issues and regulators beef up enforcement.

"I've been pleased to see how much the conversation has grown over the last year," Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, said during a Churchill Club panel discussion this week in observance of the Saturday commemoration.

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There's obvious pressure to do so because it's hard for any legitimate company to appear like a good actor if they ignore consumers' clearly stated privacy requests. Moreover, if nothing meaningful comes out of the standards body, regulators or legislators are likely to pick up the cause, said Ryan Calo, director of privacy at Stanford's Center for Internet and Society.

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"Privacy had serious traction, but I don't know if we quite had the watershed year that some thought 2011 would be," Calo said.