The Internet and the telephone, once imagined to be profoundly democratizing, have evolved in ways that breathe new life into unchecked consumerism and authoritarian nationalism. A hope going back to the early cypherpunks is that cryptography might help — that its artful use might protect, restore, or expand democratic values threatened by technologies of surveillance and control. Is this hope remotely realistic? I offer no definitive answer, but will share my thoughts in this connection.

Phillip Rogaway studied cryptography at MIT (1991), then worked as a security architect for IBM before joining the faculty at the University of California, Davis in 1994. Co-inventor of "practice-oriented provable security," Phil,s work seeks to meld cryptographic theory and cryptographic practice in a mutually beneficial way. Beyond his technical work, Phil is also interested in social and ethical problems associated to technology.

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