Many individuals and groups, including but not limited to criminal organizations, use an additional layer of virtually unbreakable encryption codes with no third party keys.
hitTwo blind graders agree (D7, rule D16). Not in the audit sample (D11).
Grader A: hit
Strong encryption without third-party keys was freely available and used by many individuals and groups in 2009 (PGP, PGPfone and other tools released in response to Clipper). Because escrow never happened (see 067), this was the only layer, not an 'additional' one, but the core claim holds.
Test: Existence and use test: strong non-escrowed encryption in widespread use (PGP and similar), not under government control.
Clipper chip (Wikipedia) (retrieved 2026-09): Strong cryptographic software like PGP and PGPfone was widely used and not under US government control.
Grader B: hit
Strong encryption without third-party keys (PGP, SSL/TLS, Skype encryption) was widely available and used by individuals, firms and criminal groups by 2009.
Test: User test: widely used by many groups by 2009.
Wikipedia: Clipper chip (accessed 2026-09-28): Key-escrow Clipper chip (1993) entirely defunct by 1996; strong crypto such as PGP spread.
Wikipedia: HTTPS (accessed 2026-09-28): HTTPS became the majority of web use only from 2018; April 2018 70% of Firefox page loads encrypted.
All captured fields
rank
68
kind
decade_prediction
section
Communication
subject
Secret encryption, with no oversight
target year
2009
timing
in
position
Chapter 9, "2009"; item Communication 11 in Kurzweil 2010, p. 58
confidence
high
note
Wording as reproduced by the author in "How My Predictions Are Faring" (2010); book page not given there. Subject label is the essay's own item heading.