
Consumers Union, the policy and mobilization division of Consumer Reports, has published a white paper about data encryption—the digital tools that scramble messages and other data to ensure that they cannot be accessed by anyone for whom they are not intended—entitled “Beyond Secrets: The Consumer Stake in the Encryption Debate.” The paper examines the many benefits of encryption to consumers and society, and urges policymakers to consider these benefits in the ongoing debate about the boundaries of encryption and government access to encrypted data.