Most alarming of all is the White House's bold new encryption policy initiative, under development at NSA since the start of the Bush administration, and unveiled April 16th, 1993. The centerpiece of this initiative is a Government-built encryption device, called the Clipper chip , containing a new classified NSA encryption algorithm. The Government is encouraging private industry to design it into all their secure communication products, like secure phones, secure FAX, etc. Of course, to make Clipper completely effective, the next logical step would be to outlaw other forms of cryptography. If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy.
Intelligence agencies have access to good cryptographic technology.
So do the big arms and drug traffickers. So do defense contractors, oil companies, and other corporate giants. But ordinary people and grassroots political organizations mostly have not had access to affordable military grade public-key cryptographic technology. PGP empowers people to take their privacy into their own hands. There's a growing social need for it.