Conclusion

As long as debates surrounding the importance of encryption are centered on issues of law enforcement access and the need for exceptional access to information to facilitate criminal investigations, an important part of the discussion is missing. A common reaction to advocates’ arguments about the need for strong encryption is that if someone “has nothing to hide,” they should not care if law enforcement has access to their data. As much as proponents try, attempts to reorient the discussion from “privacy vs. security” to “security vs. security” often fail to capture the attention of the general public and convince them of encryption’s importance for privacy and free expression, rather than as a supposed barrier to catching criminals and terrorists.

Reframing encryption as a consumer privacy issue, and illustrating all the ways it is important in everyday life has the potential to bring together advocates from different fields, as well as to change the minds of everyday people. Encryption is crucial to the way we communicate remotely, make secure purchases, use online tools to access financial information or file taxes, and access remote medical care. The same technology that allows journalists to communicate securely also allows people to buy groceries using a mobile app without fearing that their sensitive financial information will be stolen. The same technology that allows users to chat securely with friends on messaging platforms also prevents tech companies from gathering data from those conversations to use in ways that participants may not be comfortable with. Further including protection for and promotion of strong encryption in comprehensive consumer privacy legislation, both at the state and federal levels, would both provide important recognition of how intertwined it is with other issues of data protection, and would incorporate another much-needed tool as a safeguard to protect privacy.