Nor is government monitoring of phone calls a thing of the past. Your phone call was probably bugged and recorded. The name of any U.S. citizen is supposed to be erased whenever a human analyzes captured recordings. But the Echelon surveillance network is run jointly by U.S., British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand spy agencies and no law prevents the agencies of other countries from spying on US citizens. According to Mike Frost, a former employee of Canada's NSA-counterpart, the NSA and other intelligence agencies get around laws against spying on their own citizens by asking their international counterparts to do it for them.
Encryption is useful for more than protecting our privacy from the intrusions of big brother.
Everyone who has used the internet to buy books, music, or computer supplies appreciates the necessity of encrypting financial information like credit card numbers. As more and more people use the net to apply for home loans, buy automobiles, or do their banking, financial security becomes even more important. But it's not just financial information which needs to encrypted, privacy is important when researching and transmitting medical information or when writing letters to a lover. Businesses too are using the internet to speed communication of ideas and documents among corporate divisions in different parts of the country and the world. Encryption is necessary to keep all of this information private, secure, and confidential.