ABSTRACT
The encryption debate provides an ideal case study to consider the relationship between language, power, privacy, and surveillance. In particular, the debate over encryption illustrates how comprehension gaps can be employed by those who favour the passage of anti-privacy encryption-restricting legislation. This chapter begins by taking a historical perspective on the issue, considering how as encryption shifted from being a tool used solely by the most powerful, governments and law enforcement agencies attempted to resist the democratisation of the technology. The chapter moves on to consider more recent controversies in order to examine how metaphors, over-simplification, and sensationalist rhetoric have been used to distract from legitimate concerns about the undermining of encryption tools essential for the protection of privacy.
