They are anti-tech.  Anything anti-encryption is anti-tech: tech doesn&#x27;t exist without encryption.<p>&gt; the moral case for refusing to hack into a terrorist’s phone is hard to make – particularly in the US over an Isis-inspired attack during an election year.<p>It isn&#x27;t hard.  The case is a right to privacy, which also happens to be a huge part of ANY tech company&#x27;s business.  The reason we use so much tech these days is because of the privacy controls.  Also, Snowden and others pointed out the FBI probably has all useful the information it could retrieve about this terrorist anyway, so the work phone is relatively useless.<p>&gt; Technology companies may not create oil spills, but their effects on modern life are suddenly spreading across a gamut of topics – privacy, tax, regulation, safety, even housing<p>Translation - &quot;tech companies are creating problems in modern life akin to oil companies&#x27; oil spills&quot;<p>&gt; That’s why the San Bernardino case could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The FBI knows that the publicity from this battle won’t be favourable to Apple, whichever way the courts rule.<p>- &quot;Tech companies are in a weak position and will probably lose this battle&quot;<p>&gt; What if the next case involves taxis and short lets used for child trafficking? Or tax avoidance turning out to fund terrorism? Those may sound farfetched, but they’re only a form of Kranzberg’s first law: “Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.”<p>&quot;What if&quot; sounds like the author is warning of impending doom on the tech sector.  The suggested cases are not far-fetched, but yeah, tech doesn&#x27;t traffic people, people traffic people.<p>&gt; This week, the tech business is learning, to its reputational cost, just what that really means.<p>I don&#x27;t know how you can read that as anything but anti-tech.  I believe tech business understands encryption deeply, and has even striven to understand the government&#x27;s position and comply whenever possible.  It is the government who needs to come to the table and sincerely listen and understand the implications of what it is asking, that a) their solution will hurt IT in the US and future innovation of humanity and b) their solution won&#x27;t work since criminals will simply find another encryption app or device to use