This article is a load of bull, as other people have indicated. There's almost certainly a backdoor built into these devices, and that backdoor isn't something

This article is a load of bull, as other people have indicated. There's almost certainly a backdoor built into these devices, and that backdoor isn't something that will get trotted out for something as "trivial" as the poor killing each other. The government can already access these data, they're just looking to escalate their level of intrusiveness by making a political case for decentralization of the backdoor exploitation. I'm really running out of "if they can do this bad thing, we'll be super fucked" because they've been able to get clearance to do or keep doing more and more invasive surveillance over the years. If local PDs can crack into our phones at will (and they are already there via stingrays and their airplane equivalents) we are going to be in for a bad time. Remember how petty and disgruntled the cops are? Now they've got the metadata and content data of your communications because you said the wrong thing at a traffic stop. That's assuming they aren't owning you from the moment your phone connects to the tower. "Exigent circumstances require it" and all.