[huntleydavis]

Privacy is obviously the foremost issue at hand with the Government's request here, but there is also a huge potential impact on the future of the iPhone software. There is a huge difference between granting access to a user's data at the Government's request vs demanding a customized build of the iPhone's OS. Imagine the long-term implications of having a third-party tether its misaligned feature requests to every OS update that the iPhone makes. What would be the continued relationship with Apple and the agency behind this? Would this evolve into something analogous to HIPAA compliance?