The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), never the most popular of federal agencies, is now facing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit for an incident involving a jar of gourmet peanut butter. Frank Hannibal says that he was trying to take a jar of Crazy Richard's peanut butter through airport security when a TSA worker objected to the layer of oil on top of the peanut butter and pulled him out of line.

Privacy advocates seized this lawsuit as a call for stricter privacy controls, citing advances in cloud computing. Not clear was the linkage between cloud computing and peanut butter, but privacy experts increasingly view everything as a threat. “It's hard to be responsible with consumer products when TSA officials keep trying to get access to them,” claimed on advocate who wished to keep his name private.

So the Obama administration is doing what it can to move forward without legislation. In February, the president signed an executive order, which will create a framework allowing the government to share information. Regardless, keep in mind that the Obama administration is pushing a self-regulatory approach that could enhance protection without legislation through voluntary standards. Subsequent to the release of the framework and voluntary guidelines, White House officials plan on providing some context on what the heck they are talking about.