Telecommunications Law in the Internet Age

CHAPTER 9

Encryption

Encryption technologies are the most important technological breakthrough in the last one thousand years. No other technological discovery—from nuclear weapons (I hope) to the Internet—will have a more significant impact on social and political life. Cryptography will change everything.

Lawrence Lessig, Harvard law professor and author of Code: and Other Laws of Cyberspace¹

WITH THE INCREASED COLLECTION, USE, SALE, AND EXCHANGE OF private information about individuals, usually without the individual’s knowledge or permission, it is clear that technology has introduced privacy concerns that the framers of the U.S. Constitution never dreamed about. As discussed in Chapter 8, current law has not totally addressed these concerns, ...