De verenigde staten gaan de regels voor het exporteren en encryptie software versoepelen, het verkopen van encryptie software aan Europese landen mag nu zonder dat je toestemming hebt van de USA. Ze hebben ingezien dat de regels eigenlijk belachelijk zijn, en dat het daarom tijd was om ze te versoepelen 
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WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration plans to announce next week that it will permit U.S. software companies to sell their most sophisticated encryption systems to countries in the European Union without any licensing or review.
The announcement, which could come as early as Monday, completes the reversal of a longstanding and costly policy that until recently barred U.S. software makers from exporting any but the simplest encryption systems. It was feared that their misuse would threaten national security by frustrating U.S. intelligence-gathering. Unrestricted sales by encryption system makers in Europe and Asia undermined the argument and the U.S. trade curb.
Encryption systems are used in many consumer products, including cell phones, to ensure that conversations remain private and DVDs to prevent copyrighted movies from being copied illicitly. In more sophisticated uses, they protect banking transactions, hospital records, business privacy and other proprietary information.[break]De FBI is niet blij met deze ontwikkeling, ze vinden dat terroristen niet in bezit mogen komen van goede encryptie software (net alsof je dat niet gewoon overal kan d/l'en):[/break]Against them was a powerful intelligence and national security establishment that rarely loses battles in Washington. They warned that even unsophisticated encryption systems afforded stout protection to terrorists.
World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef, for example, used over-the-counter encryption technology in his laptop computer, according to the FBI. It included two encrypted files that it took FBI experts more than a year to decipher, law enforcement officials said. Among his plans was one to blow up 11 U.S. airliners in the Western Pacific in one day.
In a speech before the Citizens Crime Commission of New York last July, FBI Director Louis Freeh warned that encryption systems in the wrong hands were a threat to the nation's security.
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