The secrecy surrounding the tactic, alleged by CNET sources, is as alarming as the potential abuses.
Even as the Obama Administration avows that it welcomes a civic debate about the surveillance state, it preemptively short-circuits citizens’ ability to assess and debate policy. It’s disingenuous, illiberal, anti-democratic, and imprudent. The notion that self-government, secret policy, and secret law can coexist is Obama’s folly, and the folly of his predecessors.
Source: Are the Feds Asking Tech Companies for User Passwords? – The Atlantic
Secret policy and secret law make for secret police and dictators.