Saudi Arabia pleased by RIM's concession, says BlackBerry messaging can stay for now

The forty-eight hour deadline came and went, but Saudi Arabia didn't pull the plug -- citing a "positive development" in RIM's efforts to appease Saudi regulators, the country has allowed BlackBerry messaging services to continue for the time being. Saudi Arabia's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) didn't specify what the aforementioned "development" was, but thanks to well-placed anonymous sources we can hazard a guess: "CITC will now be able to monitor communications via messaging services," one Saudi telecom official told the Wall Street Journal, and Reuters reports that RIM will hand over BlackBerry decryption codes to the country. That's all for now, but expect this issue to bubble back to the surface again in the United Arab Emirates come October.

[sighclops Posted Aug 10th 2010 7:53PM]

if there are serious security concerns (ie. using blackberry's to coordinate illegal activity), then i don't see the problem. haven't other governments been doing this for years?

better to be safe than sorry!

[sighclops Posted Aug 10th 2010 7:53PM]

@sighclops

blackberries*

[bcd Posted Aug 10th 2010 8:30PM]

oh, how kind of you Saudi Arabia.

[CookieMonsterrrr Posted Aug 10th 2010 8:40PM]

Hmmm...perhaps the U.S. encourages Saudi government to pressure RIM (Canadian company) to gain access to messaging data because pressuring her neighbors to the north directly would inspire popular outrage at us obnoxious Americans?