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BlackBerry Services To Be Halted In UAE

Posted by Soulskill on from the blocking-the-tip-of-an-iceberg dept.

WrongSizeGlass writes "Bloomberg is reporting RIM's BlackBerry Messenger, e-mail and Web browsing services will be suspended in the United Arab Emirates, the Middle East's business hub, starting October 11th due to security concerns. RIM faces similar restrictions in India. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said in a statement on state-run Emirates News Agency, 'In their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns for the UAE.' A senior Indian government official said, 'Though RIM has been fully cooperating ever since the matter was taken up with it in 2008, reports of the company's move to set up a server in China forced us to look at it in a different way.'"

3 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. "Security Concerns" by Nimloth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I read this and thought: "really? security concerns over the BlackBerry network?". Then I figured out that the "security concerns" were that it is too secure for them because they like to reserve the right to eaves drop and lay the smackdown when they feel appropriate.

  2. Saudi too by Sir_Sri · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Some other places are reporting this as both saudi and the UAE (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100801/world/ml_emirates_blackberry). Saudi being a somewhat bigger market.

  3. Re:I Can recall another issue with Blackberry by icegreentea · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, the restrictions really don't matter cause all communications to/from the President must be recorded and be made available. Bush Jr gave up on his personal email (it was an aol account) when he became president cause he didn't want to have to disclose private information. Obama's BB will be under similar restrictions. Whatever BES he's attached to probably has all sorts of ridiculous auditing and filtering stuff turned on for his account. It's very much going to be 'boring' work phone.