BlackBerry email, web and messaging to be banned in UAE due to 'security concerns'
By Vlad Savov 
posted August 1st 2010 10:41AM
posted August 1st 2010 10:41AM
posted August 1st 2010 10:41AM
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Given that i use ActiveSync over https in my android phone (which is encrypted) , i don't see how is Blackberry is different from any other smartphone, i know for a fact that stupid low will not last long as corporate use BB as there main email on the go solution .
This is why we will never have secure computing. Because every manufacturer must build back doors into the devices to appease governments, including the United States Government. Once these Backdoors are there, it is only a matter of time before criminals are able to find and use them.Our notion of privacy and security is an illusion.
@Gel214th
Agreed. However, the German government does sponsor development of GnuPG, which gives me some hope.
Damn. That is crazy...glad I'm in America where they just listen without disturbing my day to day. Lol
People who think this is so bad should go look at the phone selection middle easterns' markets (mainly the gulf area) get compared to the US.
Until the last couple of years, the phones' selections in the US was a big joke compared to the market over there in the gulf.
Both Nokia and SE have almost all of their phones in the gulf market, unlocked for anyone to use, unlike the market here in the US.
I was amazed at how people were about the two SE walkman dumbphones that I brought with me a few years ago, some were totally clueless about them. My friends got similar reactions about their nokia dumbphones.
I still think the market here is not that good compared to back home(KSA), every phone is unlocked and no carriers BS. If it weren't for the recent android phones and the iPhones, it would still be a joke, but there are big improvements.
Also, people seem to be forgetting (as I understood the issue about RIM phones' data not being tracked, right?) how they have to deal with monitering and finding terrorists threats. The bombing that happened in the eastern province at Dahran in Saudi Arabia was not pretty.
Before someone jumps with a gun on my throat, I'm a scholarship student at the US from KSA for four years and half now.
@Sorral +1 to you sir . Unlocked phones , KSA rocks .
BTW I am from India
@pioneerf2
Thanks!
Droid does.
@ashleythehottiest
While this a stupid banned, it have a nice side effect, it will make Android/iPhone mobiles to be more popular ,killing the BB, i was wishing for BB to die but not like that.
So no mobile surfing for Obama while visiting the oil rich sands.
Oh no they didn't!
Thank God we know they are watching.
It is a worrying development when any form of communication that the state can't eavesdrop on is considered a security concern. And I'm not just talking to the UAE.
The mean reason that triggered the ban in the UAE was planning a civil protest against the raise in Gas prices (which was cancelled and didn't even take place!). Spreading and passing invitations through BBM.
It's rather narrow minded of the authorities over there to think they can monitor or control communications in this day and age!
speaking of other countries, anyone know how China treats this topic? we're all familiar with Googles problems but i haven't heard much about BB's there; could be enlightening.
RIM will have a tough job pleasing these thugs.
@Bosco They will be fine they can just do the same thing they do for western countries already
This isn't surprising. I mean, they do censor tons of websites considered inappropriate (such as pornography). For how progressive the UAE has become, this is one step in the wrong direction.
I don't care. Blackberry will be outdated soon if OS6 were not able to compete with iPhone or Android...
Theres no point having a blackberry.
First of all the UAE and Saudi Arabia aren't requesting from RIM to spy on people to sensor their browsing and their interaction. They are simply asking what the US, Canadian, and British governments have requested and were granted by RIM, the ability to ensure that the country's national security isn't compromised due to the fact that governments aren't able to access the data on the network. Americans live in a country where anything and everything they create online is traceable by the government purely for national security interest. What the UAE and Saudi's are doing is putting the pressure on RIM to cooperate, otherwise the governments will suspend these services until a solution is presented to them by RIM to patch up the loopholes.
FYI online content is already filtered and censored in these two countries regardless of the service provider...
@arabito
In the US you can't do a wiretap without a warrant, but you there are some exceptions like if you're a suspected al Queda member, or you're communicating with a monitored al Queda member and set off alarms. There is a lot of controversy over the potential for abuse though. But tracing everything, everyone does online is ridiculous, the technical capability doesn't exist, let alone it would cause a massive shitstorm.
@Raffi256 no one said anything about tracing every single bit of information that people do, however the option of tracing anything pertaining to a specific time and date is possible in both hemispheres and you're right tracing every single bit of information is a massive shit storm. I don't believe that anyone is at liberty to say who or what is or isn't being traced nowadays online, there are many ways for governments and individuals to track someone's online activity, a search warrant is only useful and necessary when a legal case is brought up. In many cases, anyone could be labeled as a 'suspect', for instance you yourself can be a suspect simply by responding to a random blogger online that may or may not be on the government's watch list. Nonetheless, I'm all for national security, and I am a realist when it comes to admitting that we as individuals cannot hide anymore what we do online.
Even if certain websites are haram, no government should force (any) religion on its citizens. In any event, the Saudis and UAE want access to private emails to control their populations. How are the Saudis and UAE any different than North Korea or Cuba? The problem is the Wahabi Muslims hate anything that is NOT Wahabi. If all Shi'ia and Sunni Muslims became Sufi Muslims, the world would be a better place. Repression of information should be stopped in all countries.
@Dr Yusuf AlKindi
They should all adopt Zoroastrianism.
@Raffi256 Ah Zoroastrianism, he religion that practiced ritual human sacrifice. GTFO.
"it's designed to pressure RIM into releasing users' communication data "when needed.""
Well, there you go. Will RIM stood its ground/pull out, or will they follow the money? I'm guessing some UAE officials are in dire need of stock tips.
It's not just the BB...even Skype is banned in the UAE. I live and work in the M.E. and to be honest, I really feel the stone-age here...it sux. Even Wi-Fi is monitored and locked down...just no getting around the massive censorship and killing of freedoms. You can do what ever you like, just not sex; alcohol; or anything other then "family" fun. Patriot Act??? I can still access Chats and other sites and services I want. Seriously, in the U.S. can you be put in jail for adult sites?? No, so your argument that the Patriot Act is the same is invalid...period.
Well that's what happens when you try and regulate morality and you give the government the power to do so. We better be careful in America. Government is getting bigger with more power. Not a good thing at all
HAHA!! i laugh at all the blackberry owners ;) but unfortunately i have to say that Etisalat and Du are gonna be eating crap from this.... man the market is gonna go crazy again... oh well..
Let me start by saying that I am a white Expat living in Dubai, UAE for many years now and I own a Blackberry.
It was a very big disappointment this morning to be woken by a text message telling me that my Blackberry was to be crippled by October. If you are not living in the UAE and do not intend to own a phone here then please refrain from the " F'them " type comments as its a little insulting.
Dubai is a very safe place to live. If you do not break the law and conduct yourself with respect " and many conduct themselves without any respect and get away with it wildly, check facebook" then you can live a happy life of safety. The counter terrorism in Dubai is top notch and I can only imagine is a very well oiled responsive machine, that perhaps gets slowed down by requests for peoples data being delayed by RIM. Could this cost lives, well now that it has been shown to terrorists that the Blackberry is the communications device of choice, I hope nothing goes wrong before October. So I can see how it can pose a security issue.
The other issue is that the blackberry, because it is able to access an external server, is immune to the ISP's proxy which blocks adult content " aka porn " and gambling websites. This has been the case since launch so either it takes a very long time for this to piss someone off, or there was an incident. A high ranking official catches his son or daughter doing something naughty on the phone and all of a sudden someone has to be responsible. This is however unlikely as lets face it, there are much more important and country wide concerns than who's " microscopically sized " blackberry viewed boobs you liked yesterday.
Did I mention, YOU ARE ALL MONITORED. Yes, if you bought a Blackberry in the UAE for privacy alone then obviously you are the direct target of this ban, but if you are an IPhone or Andriod user, you have been spied on since the beginning. However there are applications, as there are for Blackberry that replaces the functionality of BBM which is probably scrambled in some way so we all might still be ok.
So what is really bothering people here because we are used to knowing that Big Brother is all around and I think for most that makes them very comfortable here and they stay in line. What is bothering people is that the Blackberry we all bought with great priced packages * im assuming the ISP's could charge less because somone else was handling the data ", special deals, push email and bbm, basically all the Blackberry functionality will be killed. The item we purchased and are using is to be no more. A friend purchased one two days ago. They were still handing promotional leaflets out yesterday. The ISP here promoted the Blackberry so hard that most of the community here using anything more than a Nokia or Samsung is using a Blackberry. It is nearly everyone you meet. The IPhone has done not to bad, but the package is very expensive next to the blackberry package.
So who will feel this the most. Well I have to feel for the corporate side of Dubai. The hard core business users. The companies with private accounts that communicate to their teams meeting times and all kinds of things using the Blackberry functionality. People with long distance relationships or who travel allot and need to communicate with email and bbm no matter where they are in the world. Allot of people will feel it. I think we are all thinking of ourselves today tho, and the KIRF blackberry I will have in a couple of months.
I sent an email tip to engadget at soon as I heard about this in the hopes the world would know. But nothing will change. We are all spied on. I just have to hope that the right person is looking at my data, and doesnt think Im a complete moron heh.
I'm personally hit by this. Apart from a good keyboard, this is all Blackberry has going for it. Looks like il get an android phone instead.
Please be respectful enough to leave bigotry and racism out of the discussion.
Thank You
P.S. Etisalat, you can kiss my .... Blackberry!
@5D
I would 'uprank' you several times if i could.
Same issue in India, I wonder why it didn't make the news.
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/rimm_india-renews-threat-to-ban-blackberry-services-1073907.html
India's home ministry revived its threat to shut down BlackBerry services because Research in Motion Ltd (RIM) was not providing it with information about users, raising the prospect of widespread disruptions to corporate email communications.
The move comes days after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) expressed concerns over "social and security risks" posed by BlackBerry services. The Indian government is considering the ban because of what it says is the threat posed to national security
I find it so cute that people in the West think the government is not spying on us. Ignorance must be bliss.
Only thing good I can say about the UAE is some of there country's are beautiful such as Qatar and Dubai which is great for some R&R along it's a place where I have seem the most preetiest women at and they have gadgets we have not seen in the USA or we are behind on it. I was over there as a govt employee for 2 years and loved it out there but they do have strict laws and it does not favor women rights much.
I actually grew up in Oman, and the scene there is not pretty. I've been back several times to find websites like youtube, myspace (in its hayday), etc. blocked. I mean they take it a step further even in stores. On a magazine shelf, if the cover features a model with cleavage, it's blacked out with permanent marker.
What are the millions of BB users supposed to do now? My father for example, uses his a lot for business. Granted nothing has happened in Oman, but if implemented, it turns out to be a huge waste of money.
As mentioned above, getting user info is inherent all around the world. No surprise when it is present in the West either. The issue is that if you are doing something even remotely against the culture on your phone (texts, pics, etc.), you are thrown into jail.
And I have witnessed this first hand when I was in school there.
UAE can suck it!
As usual from the UAE.. Hypocrisy,monopoly and full censorship. They need to learn to open up their markets. One can not expect any more from them especially when their telecom sector is a state owned monopoly.
Blackberry wtf! Who owns one of these prehistoric monsters...lmafo!
Stay strong RIM! Modern business is near impossible without a blackberry. They will change their tune when multinational corperations refuse to do business with them because it's such a pain in the ass without secure email! I'm an iPhone user and an android developer but when it comes to this COVCOMM is behind you 100 percent!
what a joke.
UAE government is saying due to security concerns or terrorists
will the truth is that the ban was because a very big guy in UAE write a secret Letter to cancel all his speed traps or street Penalties, but the letter went to the public because of the blackberry
and now UAE ppl want there rights (poor and mid level ppl)
while big guys (rich ppl) want to secure there cheating and dishonesty
by banning blackberry
again
ban is not due to security concerns
How is this any worse than Obama's recent successful push for warrant-less interception of electronic communications.
"Looks like those regulators over in the Middle East don't mess about."
What's with the racist stereotype?
The ME is not one country. The Middle East is not banning BlackBerry.
I read most of the comments on this subject, but I think it is a major decision from the government. As being user of Blackberry in the UAE, I think it's the correct step, as the content being spread in the blackberry messenger, is swarming with content of different kinds, that of which started to affect the community, some of the contents that are transfered around are of explicit nature, also content that disrupts the local security by spreading false roomers. In resent month Blackberry devices became a fashion necessity, they called the spread "BB fever", and here where the problem; though a person has to sign along list of terms and condition, and declares that he/she is above 18 years, many devices are being carried by youngsters starting at age 9 year, receiving BBM alerts while watching Shrek 4 3D in the cinema.