After the ban on Blackberry‘s Instant Messaging service by Saudi Arabia’s telecom watchdogs and the ban extended to block the e-mails & internet services as well by the United Arab Emirates(U.A.E), India too is said to be walking the same road.
The problem seems to be revolving around the access to the ‘encrypted data’ to the government for security concerns. Their concern is that the texts, emails and other data from Blackberry smartphones is difficult to monitor – partly because of the encryption technology and partly because the data is routed through RIM’s(Research In Motion-a Canadian company that manufactures Blackberry mobile devices) own facilities in Canada and Britain, rather than locally as with other types of mobile phone.
Indian security forces reportedly suspect that BlackBerry services were used in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, though no details have been given. If they were an important factor, it’s surprising that India did not make more fuss about it earlier.
The Indian government on Wednesday warned that if the Canadian company does not come out with some ‘technical solution’to allow the government to have access to encrypted private communication , the users will have to face blocking of their ‘BlackBerry-to-BlackBerry messenger’ service even though they would be able to continue with its voice and email services.
The RIM on the other hand, seems to have completely embroiled in this controversy has responded to a report in India’s Economic Times reported saying the firm will allow Indian security authorities to monitor Blackberry services. Satchit Gayakwad, RIM’s India spokesman,said – “We won’t compromise on the security architecture of our corporate e-mails. We respect the requirements of regulatory bodies in terms of security, but we also look at the customer’s need for privacy.”
The Indian government too is not willing to deviate from its word that Unless RIM can work out a solution which will be analysed by security experts, the government will ban Blackberry Messenger services in India.
It is quite awful that these deprecate feelings for the Blackberry services are coming to the fore at the time when the firm has unveiled a new Blackberry model known as the Torch(following pic).
We hope that the matter is sorted out quickly(which is too much to demand from the India’s scene) avoiding any inconvenience to the Blackberry mobile phone users all across the nation.
You must log in to post a comment.