The argument is about strong encryption and the right to send coded messages. In a bizarre turnabout, conservatives, who usually say they're against big brother government looking over our shoulders, have sided with the Clinton administration in saying that, for security reasons, strong encryption software cannot be exported. Liberals, on the other hand, are siding with the software industry and the banks in saying that such controls are violations of free speech and privacy. Modern coding schemes such as DES and RC5 require keys to unlock a message. A key is nothing more than a string of bits known only to people who are authorized to read the message.
Longer keys make for more secure messages.
Current U.S. law permits the export of encryption software with keys up to 56 bits long. The problem with the whole debate is that nobody wants to be confused by facts. The genie is already out of the bottle, and even Congress can't put him back. The government fought with Zimmerman for more than three years in an effort to keep PGP from being freely distributed. During this time, it was illegal to take a disk with the source code for PGP outside the U.S. and Canada.