Zimmermann, who was here for the Infosecurity conference, told ZDNet UK that Moore's law represents a "blind force" that is fueling an undirected technology escalation. Moore's law, developed by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, states that the number of transistors on a chip will double about every 18 months.

"The human population does not double every 18 months, but its ability to use computers to keep track of us does," he said, referring to what he sees as the threat to privacy from the increased use of high-tech surveillance cameras. "You can't encrypt your face."

Zimmermann wrote PGP in the early 1990s as a response to what many civil rights activists in the United States saw as increased interest by the government in gaining access to e-mail. PGP was the first widely adopted encryption program for protecting files and e-mail.

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• News: Zimmermann wants PGP open-sourced (2 July 2002)