ktappe

It's funny to watch the desperate, technologically illiterate, corrupt politicians throwing tantrums when they can't get their way.

>"support costs associated with customers switching their devices"

There is no such cost. Seriously.

He is quite wrong. It is a decision for the courts, specifically SCOTUS, on whether it is a violation of the 4th Amendment for the government to be able to search and seize your communications. The government mandating all phones be unencrypted is directly analogous to it mandating all house front doors be kept unlocked; nobody would put up with that, nor should they put up with this. Stephenson is wrong about it being a decision for the people; if the people all wanted something else that was unconstitutional, such as mandated prayer in schools or slavery, they wouldn't get those either. The point of laws in general and the Constitution in particular, is not to cowtow to the whim of the masses, but to protect the rights of oppressed minority.