While it is reasonable to expect that they would contact the FBI in such instances, I would also hope that noticing such details illicits a "I shouldnt have been able to see that, so we're not doing enough to protect the privacy of our clients" response and corrective actions.

Surely there's some line somewhere...

edit: apparently HN thinks there is no line anywhere.

Investigating the contents of each safety deposit box, or even having the ability to do so is outside the scope of what a bank vault services are sold to do.

A bank vault, like encryption, sells protection. It is for all intents and purposes neutral. It can be used for good and can be used for bad. 95% of the time a bank vault or encryption is either being used for an ethically neutral or at worst ethically ambiguous use.

When any technology or product is used for bad it is a social failure. Crime will always exist. The quantity of crime committed can be mitigated by sound long-term policies that treat those causes that are statistically most likely to contribute to crime occurring in the first place.

Ever. I don't have the original source in front of me, but with enough bits, assuming there isn't some fundamental flaw in the encryption algorithm, you couldn't brute force a key before the heat death of the universe even if you recruited every particle in the visible universe for your computation.

Big "if".

I suspect he also means that they shouldn't be looking through files in the first place on the grounds that "there might be something illegal in them"