The document summarizes a report by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University on the debate around government access to encrypted communications and data. The report finds that while encryption technologies are making some surveillance more difficult, communications will neither be completely obscured nor fully transparent. End-to-end encryption is unlikely to be adopted ubiquitously as companies rely on access to user data. Metadata and data from networked devices may enable alternative forms of surveillance. The trends raise novel privacy and security challenges as today's debate does not consider the full technological landscape.