The news of UAE banning the use of BlackBerry messaging service after October 2011 spread like wildfire through global markets causing the share price of its manufacturer, Research In Motion to plunge by nearly 5%. The Canadian smartphone operator RIM which controls 20% of the world’s market for business phones, way behind Nokia at 40% but ahead of Apple with 14% market share has been facing rough weather over its very controversial security policy of sharing information with Government agencies. At the heart of the controversy is its free flowing messaging service which runs on a 256 bit encryption that cannot be decoded by global security agencies as its servers are located in the US, Canada and Britain.
After the 9/11, the Governments of the three western nations that house the servers were allowed to access these messages. This was being selectively used to access messages of militants, the drug mafia and child pornographers but created a major worry among several nations that business information was also being tapped resulting in France banning the use of BlackBerry for its Government employees. The EU commission followed France within months leaving Blackberry in the cold while selecting the smartphone for its 30,000 employees An EU Commission spokesperson told Reuters, “Following this evaluation, the Taiwanese HTC and Apple’s iPhones emerged at the most suitable platforms for voice/mail-centric mobile devices. As a result, the Commission currently supports these two platforms”
Other big nations like Russia and China have also reportedly got total access to information as they held up RIM clearance for almost 2 years reportedly on long standing security concerns. India with a million plus users and the world’s second largest market in terms of annual growth rates too has wrested concessions for decoding e mail and voice messages in the past and is actively negotiating the secrecy concern of security agencies with RIM following their threat to bar messaging services.
Hit with the Mumbai blast supposedly masterminded by operators using the BlackBerry messaging device, the security agencies in India threatened to pull the plug on unrestricted messaging services. As a result of this market leader Nokia is already incorporating large scale infrastructure change. The suggestion had initially encountered resistance from RIM, on grounds of technology inadequacy which is now being resolved. A DOT Spokesman confirmed “After some persuasion, the (BlackBerry) representative agreed that they can provide the Metadata of the message i.e. the IP address of the BES and PIN & IMEI of the BlackBerry mobile” However India wants uninterrupted access like China and Russia have got from BlackBerry.
When it became known that selective few of the Western and communist nations had wrested concessions from RIM, other nations too wanted it. The financial hubs of UAE and Saudi Arabia hosting some of the richest men in the world, where information is traditionally censored announced the banning of RIM messaging. The arrival of the BlackBerry messaging heralded a freedom from censorship in the Gulf states which had strictly viewed and controlled western liberalism and freedom concepts especially regarding gender equality, religious beliefs and fundamental rights. RIM officials are reportedly negotiating with those nations now, faced with the threat of losing over half a million super rich users in both nations. Other nations like Kuwait, Lebanon and smaller Gulf states are likely to follow suit and RIM may be forced to do a review of its global policy on secrecy under pressure from the Governments big and small.
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