honorable. This recognition has a name. It is called "prudence." It is a virtue. What I find truly amusing, though, is that while the FBI argues that I must be a criminal if I use encryption, the Privacy Act of 1974 requires that I use it if I interact with the government. The Privacy Act of 1974 imposes the legislative requirement on all government agencies to: establish appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to insure the security and confidentiality of records and to protect against any anticipated threats or hazards to their security or integrity which could result in substantial harm, embarrassment, inconvenience, or unfairness to any individual on whom information is maintained. The Federal agencies, of course, in turn impose this requirement on their vendors. For example, the Health Care Financing Administration, through its rule making body, requires all health care organizations accepting Federal funds (including Medicare, Medicaid, and Children's Health Insurance Program) to use, at a minimum, 112 bit symmetric key encryption and 512 bit asymmetric key encryption. The FBI says only a pedophile or terrorist would use encryption of this strength. When information is confidential, using encryption is not furtive: it is responsible. We do not normally confuse "prudent" and "criminal," or "responsible" and "furtive." That the Clinton administration consistently cannot tell the difference between these when it comes to encryption is curious. That the Clinton administration feels the need to convince the rest of us that there is no difference is absolutely fascinating. The only explanation that springs to mind is that the Clinton administration has a difficult time distinguishing between "public" and "private," or imagining that anyone could have a legitimate secret. Given the number of Clinton administration illegitimate secrets that have been exposed -- certain adult activities in the Oval Office, and certa...