The beginning of a new century has also brought with it a new way of life as computer and communication technologies have radically altered the ways in which we communicate and exchange information. With the increasing importance of computer systems and the immense popularity of the World Wide Web (www), the security and confidentiality of data has also become a major issue in today’s society. This change in communication has necessitated the re-modeling of the security techniques that were previously used to maintain data confidentiality. Cryptography is one of these newly created methods. However, the statement “With every solution arises a new problem”, has again proven to be correct as the issue of whether cryptography protects the rights of individuals and/or corporations has risen to the spotlight.

Before discussing whether or not Cryptography protects the rights of individuals and/or corporations, we must understand the basic processes, principals and concepts involved in encrypting data/information. Cryptography is the science of encoding a message into a form that is unreadable and m

In conclusion, it is evident that privacy plays a very big role in our lives. We strongly believe that data encryption should not have boundaries, as setting such limitations will simply be an infringement of human rights. Setting such regulations will also prove to be “contrary to the spirit of international laws and norms that recognize privacy as a fundamental human right” . Development of e-commerce and liberated use of the Internet will be dramatically held-back if the government is allowed access to encryption keys. Computer users, individual or corporations, should be allowed the freedom to use data encryption whenever it is required as this is simply a human right.

Many human rights groups currently use encryption to protect their files and communications from seizure and interception by the governments they monitor for abuses. These include Guatemala, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mexico, South Africa, Hong Kong and Turkey. Other groups such as Amnesty International USA also use cryptographic techniques to digitally sign messages that they send over the Internet to ensure that the messages are not altered in transmission.

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