&gt; Since criminals didn&#x27;t have this capability 15 years ago <i>they couldn&#x27;t use it to hide criminal activity</i>.<p>The difference with an iPhone is not that it <i>hides</i> criminal activity but that it records it to begin with. There was no default recording of the content of communications. What loss have the police suffered that the information is now stored but unreadable when it was previously not stored at all?<p>&gt; I mean, why draw the line here?<p>Because there is a difference between the police being allowed to do something and everyone else being obligated to facilitate it.