And this technology is encryption. Through encryption an individual can provide a digital signature that marks email as his or hers. Also through encryption, the SSA can wrap up the information it mails back so securely that it would take an interceptor thousands of years to decode it. This, needless to say, would be long after the expiration of an individual's benefits, and most likely of the whole Social Security system. And encryption is available right now.
Many Web sites use it to permit credit card transactions.
But encryption was precisely the technology attacked by the other limb of the Executive Branch on Thursday. The FBI director, Louis Freeh, testified to a Senate judiciary subcommittee that any form of encryption permitted in the United States should include a back door through which law enforcement could enter and read email. Freeh has spoken often on this theme before, but last week he made unusually strong demands. But the Clinton Administration felt Freeh had let the cat too much out of the bag. This statement is a weak feint toward taking a middle ground.