You do realize state actors include the IRS, the FBI on a fishing expedition for a crime that occurred near your house, being framed for a crime because you look similar, false DNA matches, etc, right? All of these things are non-zero, and significantly above non-zero that everyone and their grandmother should consider it. Unfortunately, pandora's box opened with Snowden. We are all targets. The only difference is what degree of a target you've made yourself. If you work in tech, you're already high on a priority target list somewhere.
By the time the FBI gets a warrant and takes my safe with all my secrets, it's too late. Maybe I'm naive but I don't have time to live my life with your degree of paranoia. Good luck to you in your endeavours to avoid anyone knowing anything about your life.
It's not about preventing people from knowing anything about my life. It's about control and threat surface. You can do these things without thinking after a little practice. I would like to present the version of myself I want the public to know about and have full control over that. Incursions into my privacy violate that idea.
It's not paranoia. That would imply they aren't out to get you. They are. Leave the government out of it for a second. If someone's phone is stolen it's very likely their entire identity, a majority of their secrets, documents like medical ID cards, credit cards, etc have been compromised. This is akin to "getting a warrant to a safe" (which in reality is just court-ordered theft) and it will completely destroy a person. In the context of the discussion if you were able to break into a dead person's phone you could very likely build a complete picture of their life. Perhaps one they weren't interested in you knowing about.
I'd prefer to avoid those situations. First, by not making myself a target, and second by protecting any and all data I have the best I can. I rarely think about it but I know if my phone is stolen, my computers are taken, or I get caught up in a fishing expedition the threat surface is extremely limited (provided the information isn't beaten out of me).
You have chosen to have a different risk tolerance than the person you’re replying to. They explained their threat model, you disagree. That doesn’t make you right or them wrong.
It’s simultaneously true that for your model they’re being naive and for theirs you’re being paranoid. That’s fine.
