<i>is it admissible (under the current laws) to ask the Company to make a master key?</i><p>That&#x27;s exactly what&#x27;s under debate.  The FBI believes the All Writs Act does allow that, and Apple (and many others) disagree.<p>The safe analogy is a bit flawed[1], but to play it out, the debate is over whether or not a company should be allowed to build and sell an uncrackable safe.  Law enforcement appears to say no, and privacy advocates say yes.<p>[1] ... since if you build a safe that&#x27;s actually uncrackable, it&#x27;s by definition impossible to later modify it so it will accept some sort of master key, whereas adding software to allow disabling the passcode prompt on a phone is doable after it&#x27;s built.