[inigyou]

Engineers tend to be too people-pleasing. When someone from management asks "can you scan devices for CSAM without violating privacy?" the answer should not be "hmm... well... maybe if we did it this way it could work". The answer you should give us "no" or to hedge your bets "I don't think so". Same to the government and the court. In particular a court isn't asking for a statement of objective reality whether it's possible, they're asking whether you think you could do it.

[notnullorvoid]

People pleasing is a component for some, some also like the technical challenge. The biggest factor though is that as a software engineer "No" is basically never an accepted answer (even from management with an engineering background). They'll either counter with "we need to do X, so find a way", or they'll move along the line to the next person until they get an answer they were looking for.

Edit: There are some rare competent managers who will stop the enquiry before even asking the engineers.