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¶ … Encryption Do We Need?" By Ruth Walker appears in the Christian Science Monitor, a news source believed by many to have a left-wing bias.

The only information the author supplies about herself is her email address (

There is no company with the URL www.cps.com.The author argues against export controls for encryption technologies, but does a poor job

The author asserts that people hesitate to do business over the Internet because they're worried about security and invasion of privacy and implies that laxer export controls in the U.S. would help fix these problems. Yet, electronic commerce sales were nearly $40 billion in 2005, a figure the author neglects to mention. Encryption technology is very complex; clearly, the U.S. allows certain levels of encryption for online transactions. However, Walker fails to prevent an intelligent discussion on which encryption is tightly controlled and which is not and why.

To bolster support for her opinion, Walker mentions a company that has moved outside the U.S. To take advantage of friendlier encryption laws. but, just because other countries have weaker standards doesn't necessarily mean that the U.S. should. Walker quotes an Electronic Frontier Canada representative as saying that, "Export controls have had the general result of weakening the encryption standards available off the shelf in the U.S. And Canada." To her credit, Walker provides an alternative view by a senior officer of a security vendor saying that existing encryption, digital signatures and strong authentication technology make it save to do business on the Internet. The problem is that both of these sources are biased and there's not enough evidence to support or dispute either one.