In the last few days, the question of encryption, and whether governments can and should force companies to reveal customers’ data, has become big news. Apple has announced that they will not make it possible for the US government to read the contents of a terrorist’s iPhone, even thought that might provide clues to the shooting in which they participated, and to others connected to that crime. But is it a wise idea to give government access to all of our data and our communications? What implications does this have for government, for technology, for privacy, and for democracy? In this talk, Ron Rivest describes these issues, and considers whether granting such access to governments is more or less secure.