> Question for HN readers outside the US: can you credibly claim your intelligence agencies aren't trying to do the same thing? I am an HN reader outside the U

> Question for HN readers outside the US: can you credibly claim your intelligence agencies aren't trying to do the same thing? I am an HN reader outside the US and I don't understand why does this matter, at all? Extending your views we might end up killing people for different views, because somewhere else is customary to do so. I can see that your world view is disrupted: In order for you to have a cause, you need a villain, like in the movies, to justify your actions. But this is not Hollywood and doing something illegal, unethical and ultimately unacceptable says that we can't trust you among other things. NOTE: Implying that someone is doing something illegal, and knowing that he is doing it, are two totally different things. Also, to answer your question, even if my country's agency did that, I would still find the action of installing remote backdoors repulsive.