I think the token IT guy is not even wondering, he&#x27;s pretty certain the FBI request is perfectly reasonable.<p>Most corporate sysadmins are BOFHs, relishing the power they wield and convinced they can do no wrong. They have nothing against electronic surveillance -- they practice it daily with gusto, they just think they&#x27;re smart enough to avoid someone else doing it to them.<p>Hell, the whole &quot;root&quot; model is fundamentally authoritarian in principle, no matter how hard we try not to say it. It might have been born out of engineering necessity, but it has long generated its own cultural artefacts. It might have been balanced somewhat by historical accident (i.e. west-coast liberal culture, phreaking etc), but this balance has been eroded when the IT job market exploded and all sorts of people were onboarded.<p>Modern sysadmins would find nothing strange with the FBI request. They special-case their way out of ethics on a regular basis already.