When we started our road trip into crypto land, we had no intention of developing something new or getting too involved. It was more a matter of interest and if we could protect our emails and the attachments, which were private and hence should only be shared between sender and recipient. Since 9/11 and the attacks on the World Trade Center the legal requirements in many countries changed and deleting emails by a user didn't mean they actually had been removed. Providers of email services were requested by law to keep emails for specified times to allow government agencies access to them if required. The reasons given were straight forward and seemed to make sense. It was claimed to protect national security and fight terrorism.

Since then the case for the dismantling of our right to privacy has been modified and the range of reasons for it have increased. Crime, organized crime, terrorism and to drive the agenda forward with a moral impetus, pedophilia has been added to the list. Certainly the majority of readers will agree that the mentioned items deserve to be rooted out. However, it is debatable how this can be achieved and it appears that from preventing crime in the first place, we have moved to a point where trying to catch a criminal after committing an offense is more important than to preventing the crime.