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Saudi Says RIM Deal Reached; BlackBerry OK, If We Can Read the Messages
crimeandpunishment writes "There's a deal on the table to avert a ban on Blackberry's messenger service in Saudi Arabia. A Saudi regulatory official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press the deal involves placing a server in Saudi Arabia ... and letting the government monitor users' messages, easing Saudi concerns over security and criminal usage. The deal could have wide-ranging implications, given how many other countries have expressed similar concerns, or in the case of the United Arab Emirates, have threatened to block Blackberry email and messaging services." Perhaps the governments of UAE and India would be satisfied, too, if only they had access to the messages transmitted.
You give up certain rights when you travel to a foreign country.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
You do realize that the US gov't knows it could not do the same thing without getting a big uproar, but they can just get all of RIM's traffic routed through Saudi Arabia, right... Who am I kidding, the US ALREADY can view everybody's BlackBerry messages.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
reached a virtual standstill when the maintainers told Saudi Arabia to "stick it".
what exactly is RIM selling? confidence and trust.
they just threw all that out the door.
yes, I think its a HUGE deal. when their whole stock and trade is privacy and then they turn around and sign a 'smiling deal' with our arch enemies (...), yes, I consider that an about-face in the harshest of ways.
we all suspected the almighty looney was king, here; but I was hoping for a ray of sunlight. hoping; but apparently not getting.
no corporation, today, can continue the 'do no evil' for very long. how very sad for us all.
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Who am I kidding, the US ALREADY can view everybody's BlackBerry messages.
Any evidence of that?
I recall my company's legal team doing a search for any instance where intercepted, decrypted messages from a Blackberry Enterprise Server were used in court. The lawyers weren't able to find any cases.
Now, that doesn't prove anything, but it's a good indicator.
Plus, you can use S/MIME and PGP with blackberry for additional encryption.
Architecturally, it looks like this deal will affect only BIS users, the ones that just walk up to the Phones-r-us kiosk and buy a blackberry and service plan. It won't have any effect on corporate customers running BES servers, since those have their own keys, and devices talking to them won't be dealing with the BIS servers being set up in Saudi Arabia.
Thus, the customers most likely to complain, and make their complaints felt in the pocketbook, are unaffected, while the little people are ever more transparent.