Some companies choose an alternative route. They choose to export products that incorporate weaker encryption, placing them at a significant disadvantage to their competitors abroad. Users understand the value of encryption, and simply do not want products that are weak or easily broken. Companies who choose this route often find that their potential international customers go elsewhere to find products that meet their need for robust privacy and security products. This dichotomy between their foreign counterparts and US companies is so pronounced a foreign competitor of Privada has used it to market its services.
Current policy limits the ability of companies and individuals to protect data and communications.
Perhaps the most problematic aspect of current policy is that without strong encryption products, data and communications remain unprotected. With robust encryption, companies and individuals have the tools they need to ensure that their online activities and data are secure, protected and authentic. Without strong encryption, our products and others cannot provide the level of security that customers are demanding. When forced to use weaker encryption, products and services are vulnerable, undermining the very sense of security and confidence that we seek to instill and foster. In fact, they actually weaken protections by generating a false sense of security - as has been said many times, weak cryptography is worse than none at all.