But it happens automatically. Proponents of encryption argue that you should be able to encrypt all your e-mails and files as easily and so protect them from all the prying eyes that can intercept your communications at so many points along the electronic trail. This, they say, is essential for the development of the Internet. Alan Davidson is a lawyer in Washington with the pressure group the Centre for Democracy and Technology, and he argues for the unrestricted extension of encryption. What most people don't realise is that the way messages are sent over the Internet is like sending a postcard.
Encryption puts an envelope around that postcard.
He says that the authorities have been enjoying easy access to communications for too long. The FBI's Barry Smith says officials need access to the plain text of encrypted files Over now to the FBI, which sees things rather differently. Barry Smith, every inch the classic FBI agent, is the Unit Chief at the Office of Public and Congressional Affairs. He argues that the FBI and other agencies need the ability to decode communications and recovered files if allowed to do so by a court. Mr Smith says that the FBI does not put forward its own technical solution but points to two methods of getting the plain, or original, text.