The Importance of Encryption Of all the differences between democracies and totalitarian states, one of the most fundamental is the right to privacy.
Cryptography enables people to protect their communications.
Civil libertarians view availability of strong cryptography as necessary to the ability to communicate privately in an electronic world. Attacks on Privacy Protecting our privacy rights is a constant struggle. But the proliferation of electronic databases has only exacerbated these problems. There are now over five hundred companies that buy and sell data about Americans. The public is concerned with its privacy.