Yes, maybe they should be encrypted but that's still a problem because most of the time the answer can be correct in context but wrong technically. For example,

Yes, maybe they should be encrypted but that's still a problem because most of the time the answer can be correct in context but wrong technically. For example, "what's the name of your first pet?". If you originally answered "Spot" when you set it up then enter "spot" when you're asked later those two won't match after the hash is compared (if you use hashing) and it won't match if it's unencrypted either. That's an easy case to fix of course but there are other times when they ask for the name of your high school or something. I've been asked that several times and I'm not able to be consistent in my answer each time as sometimes my answer will be "Blah Blah High" or "Blah Blah Township High School" or any variation of that. Both answers are correct but only a person can see that. So as I see it, encryption or hashing is good for keeping the answers a secret but bad when it comes time to use those answers again.