The way this works is that in addition to the more colorful clients, you absolutely need to make sure that you have a sufficient number of clients among law enforcement and security services in countries with a decent(-ish) track record regarding human rights. This way, your products and services are not obviously illegal. You can even tell your employees that your products and services are saving lives because it's actually true.
This strategy mostly works because the major operating system suppliers refuse to implement requested lawful intercept solutions for their consumer products. Instead, we end up with companies that try to fill the gaps, making a business of exploiting security flaws. It's possible for the OS vendors to completely dry this swamp, by offering competing services to law enforcement using the interfaces they already have (automated software updates, for example). The reputable clients would migrate rather quickly. These companies would be left with just the shady clients, making it much more difficult to justify their continued existence.
This strategy mostly works because the major operating system suppliers refuse to implement requested lawful intercept solutions for their consumer products. Instead, we end up with companies that try to fill the gaps, making a business of exploiting security flaws. It's possible for the OS vendors to completely dry this swamp, by offering competing services to law enforcement using the interfaces they already have (automated software updates, for example). The reputable clients would migrate rather quickly. These companies would be left with just the shady clients, making it much more difficult to justify their continued existence.