It will set a precedent for the government legally conscripting any and every entity they desire for the purposes of citizen surveillance and metadata collection.

Pontiac Tribune

Edward Snowden

The power to force a company to undermine security protections for its customers may seem compelling in a particular case, but this week’s order has very significant implications both for technology and the law. Not only would it require a company to create a new vulnerability potentially affecting millions of device users, the order would also create a dangerous legal precedent. The next time an intelligence agency tries to undermine consumer device security by forcing a company to develop new flaws in its own security protocols, the government will find a supportive case to cite where before there were none.

EFF