EFF has been posting a great series of recaps on the year for civil liberties and privacy issues. If you haven’t checked out their summaries, you’ll definitely want to read these:
2011 in Review: Hacking Law
2011 in Review: Search Incident to Arrest and Your Cell Phone
2011 in Review: Defending Location Privacy in Courts and Congress
2011 in Review: Nymwars
2011 in Review: California Reader Privacy Upgrade
2011 in Review: Fighting the Internet Blacklist Bills