There has been a significant leak of NSA data - that was Snowden. There have been significant leaks of the personal data of most (all?) applicants and holders o

There has been a significant leak of NSA data - that was Snowden. There have been significant leaks of the personal data of most (all?) applicants and holders of security clearances from OPM servers. So government is incapable of setting up systems to secure themselves. If backdoor access is required, it destroys the incentive for private industry to develop improved technology for privacy (is the argument that our technology is better going to sell when a back door is always available for access?). If better private technology were available then the government breaches would have been less likely. If better private technology were available then more commercial breaches would be stopped. We should be careful when the FBI is advocating a capability to help investigate events which occur vanishingly rarely (and for which they have many other tools and avenues) vs the integrity of infrastructure which affects a wide swath of public security. When one looks at the entire balance, requiring a backdoor has a high chance that it would lock us into much less secure state of affairs than if everyone is free to pursue and apply the best privacy/encryption measures possible.