"But not only were they illegal, like debuggers—you could not install one if you had one, without knowing your computer's root password. And neither the FBI nor Microsoft Support would tell you that"

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html

That's nearly 25 years old. Fortunately we can still use Free operating systems on at least desktop and laptops, but if you choose to use proprietary software, you get what you get.