If you ask the EFF, the government is purposefully misinterpreting the law to avoid being hauled out on the carpet. The organization believes that the Freedom Act requires declassification of all "significant" FISC orders, not just the latest ones. It's a matter of obeying the law, the EFF says.

Should the group get its way, it could shed light on just how serious the government is about breaking encryption or inserting backdoors. While the White House has said that it won't support laws mandating access to devices, that doesn't mean that officials haven't ordered access on a case-by-case basis. There's no guarantee that the EFF will find anything, of course. If they do, however, the feds may have to answer a lot of questions about their respect for Americans' privacy and security.