One of the buzz words related to encryption  is the ECHELON systhem and most reports like the one below are more likely to get ignored than to be taken serious.

To show that there is real reason to get concered I put here the STOA report by Duncan Campbel for the EU parliament covering this subject.

 start with : ic2000start.htm in this directory

more documents can be found here:
http://www.oocities.org/w_trouble_o/dumping/civil-liberties/documents1.html

Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 13:13:07 +1300
From: Peace Movement Aotearoa <pma@xtra.co.nz> (by way of stu <stu@ihug.co.nz>)
Subject: ECHELON: Shipley must come clean on spy network in NZ
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5 Nov 1999.

Shipley must come clean on spy network in NZ

The Green Party is calling on Jenny Shipley, the minister in charge of the
Waihopai spy base, to come clean on its activities after revelations today
from senior officials that Australia is part of an international spy
network.

The man who oversees Australia's security services, Inspector General of
Intelligence and Security Bill Blick, is reported confirming in a BBC
interview that the Australian Defence Signals Directory - sister
organisation to New Zealand's GCSB - is part of the US Echelon spy network.
Now that it has been admitted, US congressman are calling for an inquiry.

Green Party Co-Leader Rod Donald said Mrs Shipley had continued to dismiss
calls for an investigation into the Waihopai base, near Blenheim, despite
mounting evidence that it was also involved in Echelon.

Echelon intercepts private telephone calls, faxes and emails and is
allegedly on the look out for international terrorism.

"There is every indication Waihopai is part of the US-based network spying
on private communications but we are continually faced with denials. With US
congressman calling for an inquiry the issue can no longer be ignored by the
Government," Mr Donald said.

"New Zealanders deserve to know who is being spied on, for what purpose and
why they are paying for it out of their taxes - $20 million this financial
year," he said.

Mr Donald said New Zealanders would be shocked to learn private messages
containing innocuous words and phrases such as "Bugs Bunny" and "Blenheim"
were reported to be among the words monitored.

Echelon has posts around the world and is controlled by the US National
Security Agency at Fort Mead. Every international telephone call, fax, email
or radio transmission can be listened to by powerful computers capable of
voice recognition.

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        Peace Movement Aotearoa
    PO Box 9314, Wellington, Aotearoa / New Zealand
  tel +64 4 382 8129, fax +64 4 382 8173, pma@xtra.co.nz
   http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/
       the national networking group for peace people
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