But with backdoored encrypted communications the government would have instant access to ALL enciphered letters at once, regardless of the seeming guilt or innocence of the sender or recipient.<p>To me that seems like the key difference. If all but face-to-face communications are electronic, and no electronic communications can be strongly encrypted, then the private sphere is greatly reduced and many things once considered private become public.<p>But on the other side of things, with strong crypto many things once considered public would become private.<p>There doesn&#x27;t seem to be an easy way around this choice.