I agree with you that people capitalize on events to fit into their political narratives, and I also agree that privacy is not an absolute value, and that tensions between values calls for tradeoffs to be made.<p>But I do believe that calling this a backdoor is proper framing. Apple provided a weak password knowing that convenience often beats security, but Apple also provided a mechanism by which one can have weak passwords and still have strong security via a max-attempt mechanism. It is a circumvention of security features, and &quot;backdoors&quot; are about security, not encryption (which is merely a subset of security).<p>I also think the legal fight is not circumscribed around narrow parameters with predictably narrow legal outcomes. The FBI cites a law from 1789 that says that the court may issue &quot;...all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law&quot;. It does not sound easy to predict what case law shall determine to be &quot;necessary or appropriate&quot; 5-10 years from now.