With the storage capacity of smartphones in 2017, people keep copious amounts of personal information on their devices. While it is understandable why government agencies would want access to the devices of suspects in investigations, that is not reason enough for software to be made that would allow the government access to all devices.

With the creation of this software, a precedent could be set. In recent years, the topic has been brought up specifically with Apple and the FBI about creating a new software tool that would allow access to previously protected costumer data on Apple devices. In cases like the San Bernardino shooting in December 2015 and, most recently, the Texas shooting this past week. The phone was the property of the attackers and the FBI said it would hold possible information that would be pertinent to the ongoing investigation.

It may begin with the reasonable request for access to the phone of suspects involved in high-scale crimes, however, were this software to be created, there is no guarantee how it will be used in the future.

This may become just another example of how the government is “data mining” their citizens. Beginning in 2005, debate had ramped up over the government use of warrantless wiretapping of American phone calls.

The creation of this software bypass would give the government another resource for gaining the personal information of American citizens. People’s personal information is already all over the internet. Popular private social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter already have access to a large quantity of their users’ personal information, with archives of what they post on top of back-end account information like phone numbers.

It seems obvious for the U.S. government to want to have the capability to access the phones of serious suspects to aid in criminal investigations, but this does not justify the government having access to the devices of the entire U.S. population. This constitutes a potential invasion of privacy if the software is built and given to the government. If the software were to be created, it would likely be unregulated and have no precedent for what is constituted as acceptable use of the software.

With the power that personal information holds, the government having access to software that would be able to bypass security features and gain access to virtually anyone’s phone would be like opening Pandora’s box.