My point is that if you see a phone just as a gadget, like I imagine Obama does, it is hard to see why it should get more protection than something really intimate like the inside of someone's house. That's the heart of why the two sides view this issue so differently.

Personally, I don't consider my phone any more private than my desk drawer. I don't put anything on my phone that I wouldn't write down on a piece of paper. I know some do, and they're entitled to their view, but I find Obama's underwear analogy pretty convincing because I think of a phone just as a gadget.

I'm sure you already know this argument, but it bears re-mentioning. It's not the things you directly store on your phone -- it's everything else. Your phone tracks where you go, what opinions you post about various things and when, the people you communicate with, your money, and your correspondence. Apple is making the case that your phone could basically turn into a traveling wiretap, listening to everything you say. I even saw a recent article that said folks are looking into using your phone to track when you have sex. The iPhone health app, if used, is about as personal as I could imagine anything being.

None of that bears on what sorts of extremely personal information you may or may not voluntarily choose to additionally put on your phone. In the aggregate, however, it's about as intimate as you can get.

I understand the "I don't put anything personal on my phone" statement. I feel the same way. But that doesn't mean that there aren't extremely personal and sensitive pieces of information on there -- information I would not want to be sharing with others without my consent.