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France Bans BlackBerries In Govt. On Fears of Spying
DesertBlade writes "French government officials are no longer allowed to use BlackBerries for official correspondence. The reason? Fear that the US government will snoop out French national secrets via RIM's network. From the article: '"The risks of interception are real. It is economic war," daily Le Monde quoted Alain Juillet, in charge of economic intelligence for the government, as saying. With BlackBerries, there is "a problem with the protection of information," he said. Juillet's office confirmed that he spoke to Le Monde but said he would not talk to other reporters. Officials at the presidential Elysee Palace and the prime minister's office were not immediately available for comment. Le Monde said information sent from BlackBerries goes through servers in the United States and Britain, and that France fears that the U.S. National Security Agency can snoop.'"
The French should know a thing or two about spying. They've been widely reported to engage in corporate spying against U.S. corporate interests. As an American, I say this is fair game (if the U.S. chooses this route).
http://www.iht.com/articles/1991/09/14/spy_.php - an article about this from 1991.
>maybe the French are just pissed that the Internet didn't grow from Minitel
Ooh, good homework, respect.
Your point re FUD is certainly a good one though although I'm not aware of any French 'answer to Blackberry' systems about to hit the market.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
I thought RIM was Canadian? http://www.rim.net/
Although I don't doubt that the US government would would snoop on their network too if they could.
All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
Except of course, the current French President is a conservative, and one that comes from a fairly free-enterprise and pro-American background.
Except, of course, the former French President was also a Conservative, and had been in power for the past 15 years. ith disastrous economic results except when his Prime Minister was... a French Socialist.
Except, of course, that the fundamentals of the French economy -- except for unemployment -- are sound, and that the top 40 French companies -- some of which are #1 in the world in their respective fields -- have made so much profit, they have decided to distribute Billions of Euros to their shareholders.
And you, Sir, should focus on basic literacy and common sense, instead of indulging in your know-nothing French socialist bashing.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Canada is part of Echelon.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Greetings Fracnophiles,
RIM's push-email servers are in CANADA. Your precious "Stop for a hunk of cheese, bottle of wine, and loaf of stale bread on the way home from work (at 3pm)" text messages to one another go through a server in ONTARIO. Look it up on a map. I believe on the French version of the map (as required by French law, no less) it's called ONTARIO.
Ok, so the only bad thing to have happened in recent years, for which BushCo is not at least partially responsible in your opinion, is the disappearance of a lake in Andes. Thanks! :-)
Read up on Echelon... Hardly a Bush-time invention, but one for exactly the kind of espionage, that the French are concerned about.
Read up on the first President of the France's current republic, and his nationalist (often anti-American) stand. Whether the stand is justified or not, it the philosophy strongly influenced French government since then.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
DGSE, the French intelligence services, as part of their official charter engage in industrial and corporate espionage against internal and external targets whether or not those companies are operating in France.
The More You Know.
It was "BAe, the British defence company.