Truthless.com

A "Tom Clancy" thriller lends support to the foes of encryption.

Mike Godwin from the May 1999 issue

(Page 2 of 2)

To their credit, though, the Ruthless. com team does have it right that encryption policy is a hot issue--and likely to remain one, as governments everywhere grapple with the prospect of losing the ability to snoop into citizens' private communications and data at will. But although the United States has pressured its trading partners over the last decade to suppress powerful private encryption tools, the international momentum is shifting in favor of individual rights.

Even France, which traditionally has denied private citizens the right to encrypt their data, has recently backed down. Still, the long-term success of the pro-encryption movement depends on educating a public that, as yet, is mostly uninformed about encryption policy.

Which is why Ruthless.com still bugs me: It would be a shame if the growing pro-encryption policy consensus were undercut just because Tom Clancy lent his name to a bad book.