we have vanishingly little privacy anymore.
Do you really not see what the FBI was asking for was a permanent back door?
Are you that afraid?

That was however what the apple marketing said they were asking for.

either voluntarily or by court order, they would still be entitled to payment at market rates for the services provided?

Apple is not a defendant in any of the relevant criminal or terrorist cases, and not only are their encryption technologies desired by their customers, they are compliant with all applicable law.

Apple is not responsible for government's lack of technological sophistication, no less involved with terrorism.

Legally Apple is under no obligation to pay for it.

They could get all the phone records and text messages for free, what was left? Pictures?

is that they were never able to crack the device in the first place and this is all a face-saving kabuki dance

two days ago that said they found nothing at all on the phone. They spun it nicely saying they were glad there was nothing. But, yes, the whole brouhaha was useless.

The FBI said they learned more about how suspects do not communicate... I suppose they confirmed that terrorists are smart enough not to use employer issued cell phones to plot and plan attacks.

Money well spent.

It would be really cool if other people would only follow leads that certainly pan out.

Think of all the money spent on research that produces null results, investigations that lead nowhere, candidacies that fail, job applications that lead nowhere, projects that have no useful outcome. Much nicer to have just the candidate run that will win, conduct research that produces positive and useful results, do only successful projects, only apply for the one job or position that you'll be hired at, and conduct investigations that only involve the guilty.

How do you do it?

The FBI said they doubt they were going to find anything useful.

Enjoy your wasted tax dollars.

Probably.

that at some level, the terrorists win.