Slashdot Mirror
Blackberry Offers 'Lawful Device Interception Capabilities' (itnews.com.au)
An anonymous reader writes: Apple and Google have been vocal in their opposition to any kind of government regulation of cell phone encryption. BlackBerry, however, is taking a different stance, saying it specifically supports "lawful interception capabilities" for government surveillance. BlackBerry COO Marty Beard as much at a recent IT summit. He declined to explain how the interception works, but he denied the phones would contain "backdoors" and said governments would have no direct access to BlackBerry servers. The company may see this as a way to differentiate themselves from the competition.
It's really hard to put nails into your own coffin from the outside, but DAmn are they trying.
The fact they felt it necessary to put the word lawful in that description is kind of like a mobster using the phrase "legitimate businessman". Real legitimate businessmen call themselves 'businessmen'. They don't need to add the word legitimate, because they are legitimate. You don't add the word 'lawful' unless deep down in your heart, you have questions about it being lawful.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
From what I understand a large number of their clients these days are governmental, so this move isn't all that surprising. If they took a different stance they probably would end up like QWest when they told the government to shove it when they started their illegal wiretaping program suddenly all of QWests government contracts were canceled and they found themselves under "investigation".