1. Introduction and motivation
The sempiternel question of how to gain and maintain power has haunted the minds of humanity’s brightest and darkest since the dawn of civilization. Be it physical (e.g., military) or economical (e.g., wealth), power’s very existence relied in part on access to information. Asymmetric information that is. Numerous are history’s examples that demonstrate how entities that knew what others didn’t and that were able to act on it, benefited from an unfair advantage. The quest for sustainable power motivates the protection of one’s proprietary information and the attempt at breaching that of the others.
Although significant in its own right, the pursuit of power is not the only motivator to conceal information. Privacy, in so far as the individual’s well-being is concerned, is another. In that respect, two areas stand out. The first is concerned with the unique nature of a human persona. As a matter of observation, and at the risk of irritating adherents of monism, the attributes of a human personality are so varied. Each attribute exists on a wide spectrum, making it unlikely that any two individuals have the same profile so to speak. The privacy spectrum is no exception, and while some live their lives as an open book, others might not even be comfortable sharing their half title page. The second area is concerned with the safety of a certain subset of individuals, e.g., whistle-blowers. They may hold sensitive information destined to be shared with a specific party. Should this information fall in the wrong hands, it could jeopardize the safety of the source.
It is therefore reasonable to assume that not every piece of information is meant to be common knowledge. One could certainly debate the merits of such a claim and in the process, revisit the very foundation of power, privacy and safety. The fact remains however, that information can be a source of influence, discomfort, and danger. One way of protecting specific content and limiting its access to intended parties only, is through the use of encryption and decryption algorithms.