[ignoramous]

Bugging communication devices has long been a government / law enforcement tactic, mostly enabled by telcos via ITU, which since its inception has been a willing collaborator.

Ex A: Ind x ITU, https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/india-itu-res...

Ex B: China x ITU, https://datatracker.ietf.org/liaison/1677/

[gamesbrainiac]

It has been, but getting Apple to do it was dumb. They could've just used a government app that everyone has to use, and put the bugging in there.