In the aftermath of the recent terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, some people are worried that the government will expand its powers to monitor Internet communications.
A bill allowing warrantless capture of Internet communications has passed in the Senate, and the FBI is discussing deployment of its Carnivore e-mail monitoring system at U.S. Internet service providers.
Additionally, there are concerns that Osama bin Laden, who allegedly planned the attacks, used digital encryption and steganography (information-hiding techniques) to disseminate information to terrorist cells. Privacy advocates say that forbidding the use of encryption will violate the right to privacy implied by the Constitution, but proponents of such measures argue that they are necessary to capture terrorists.
A recent poll found strong support among Americans for increased control of encryption, but a vocal minority of privacy and civil liberties activists have dismissed it as part of the backlash from the attacks.
