RIM reportedly working with India to avoid BlackBerry ban
By Donald Melanson 
posted August 13th 2010 12:57PM
posted August 13th 2010 12:57PM
For its part, RIM has issued a customer update that outlines the four main principles that govern the capabilities it provides to carriers for "lawful access purposes." Head on past the break for the complete statement.
In response to the statement published today by the Government of India, and further to RIM's Customer Update dated August 2, RIM wishes to provide this additional information to its customers. Although RIM cannot disclose confidential regulatory discussions that take place with any government, RIM assures its customers that it genuinely tries to be as cooperative as possible with governments in the spirit of supporting legal and national security requirements, while also preserving the lawful needs of citizens and corporations. RIM has drawn a firm line by insisting that any capabilities it provides to carriers for "lawful" access purposes be limited by four main principles:
1. The carriers' capabilities be limited to the strict context of lawful access and national security requirements as governed by the country's judicial oversight and rules of law.
2. The carriers' capabilities must be technology and vendor neutral, allowing no greater access to BlackBerry consumer services than the carriers and regulators already impose on RIM's competitors and other similar communications technology companies.
3. No changes to the security architecture for BlackBerry Enterprise Server customers since, contrary to any rumors, the security architecture is the same around the world and RIM truly has no ability to provide its customers' encryption keys. Also driving RIM's position is the fact that strong encryption is a fundamental commercial requirement for any country to attract and maintain international business anyway and similarly strong encryption is currently used pervasively in traditional VPNs on both wired and wireless networks in order to protect corporate and government communications.
4. RIM maintains a consistent global standard for lawful access requirements that does not include special deals for specific countries.
RIM screwed up. The camel's nose is under the tent. This could have been a good game or chicken, but RIM caved-in big time.
Will RIM install servers in Lichtenstein and Papua New Guinea when they threaten to ban the service?
@Spiny Norman
RIM should look at dell and learn how to do business. Dell paid attention to and invested in Indian market a couple of years ago and they are one of top pc brand (sale wise) world over. India is a big market and they wouldn't wanna lose it. Nokia is alive today only because of its huge market share in India and not because of Symbian^3 or N8.
@ipconfig totally agree. Nokia is alive because it dominates the indian market. 5800 was a smash hit here because of its price.
@Spiny Norman RIM told nations to shut the internet down, had their bluff called. They were the ones that got shut down and caved in a hurry, now the sharks smell blood. A governments job is to secure power for itself, and if it choses, for its people. I can't believe RIM didn't see that coming and if they did why they decided to pound their chest before they were ripped to shreds.
@ipconfig
of course Nokia is not alive today because of a phone and os they have not released yet that would make no sense.
you might want to look at the amount of phones nokia sells in indonesia, europe, china , and africa . Nokia is alive today cause they make good phones , not just because of any one market.
@ipconfig
If Nokia is still alive because of Indian consumers, then I wonder why the heck does it always launch its new devices first in UK and later India!?!
Where's Jason?
@DrVan behind you...
@rmbrown09
DrVan is already dead, LOL!
@DrVan Donald can only photoshop one thing at once, it was either that small indian flag or Jason.
@DrVan
i say just do a blackberry 'jason' logo
@DrVan
PSSST ....
check the keyboard
Rim should have told saudi to suck it. Now every one of these developing countries is going to want the same treatment.
@maattp Technically India is a Newly Industrialised Country.
@maattp o.O they cant because India is the world's 2nd largest market growing at an insane rate. Nokia is alive because it dominates in India.
@rockingtushar
I know that they can't now. But the reason India is demanding all this is because Rim gave in to Saudi Arabia.
@maattp actually india demanded it first ever since 26/11 attacks.
RIM remains defiant, until they cave.
A picture of lake..... and no Jason.....
All these countries banning blackberries need to grow balls.
@IAMKITTY Well, RIM was threatened with a blackberry BAN in the US 3-4 years ago...just saying. I think it was resolved an hour before they were to shut down.
@IAMKITTY
Say the same thing when regular terrorist attacks happen in your country. And don't lecture me when you are not completely aware of the situation in my country. Stay mum! This is an American website. I don't expect the editors to be knowledgeable enough of the situations in India anyway, not their fault.
@IAMKITTY
Why, did your momma drop any and you asked her to do the same?
@IAMKITTY
lol what?
@rockingtushar
Hahaha nube? Nice 4 year old phrase you used there.
@IAMKITTY I think sticking it too a multinational that is 3rd in the smartphone game is kind of ballsy.
Indian's don't murder women without a trial for whispers of adultery. BlackBerry should work with their government.
Why don't you give me the decryption keys too...
All this makes me wonder: in which country will Privacy be buried? Guess it doen't really matter; it will definitely be an unmarked shallow grave.
@TheHoldSteady Wouldn't an unmarked grave be considered Private?
That's fine. Its not like our Indian authorities are any competent at using these new blackberry snooping tools to actually stop the terrorists. Our version of the US Patriot Act, the POTA, is a joke.
The Indian gov't is just doing this to provide the illusion of security, so that the involved government departments involved look like they are doing something.
I believe in personal privacy, but the truth is, Indian authorities whether it be state, or central (CBI, RAW- our FBI and CIA) are useless buffoons which ideology and equipment from the 1960's.
@poachedgreeneggs that is not true. As much as I want privacy I prioritise the security of my country over it. Its time you stop being cynical and start thinking with your head. When was the last time there was a major attack in India? That was 2 years ago. This means that the new intelligence system is working.
@rockingtushar
can you tell me how this technology will help catch terr0ists in real time...
I too am patriotic ,but as someone who knows a bit of technology ,how do you think this will work..
Will Govt employ 1000 people to trace this real time ,do they have an AI which will work on this ?
Do the babus even know how PGP encryption works?
How about https /gmail is it not the same encryption,Is it not plain hypocrisy to just target balckberry?
Our honorable babus/police took bribes and allowed people into the coutry for mumbai blasts ,how are youu sure these guys wont take our bank details,snnop and blackmail women ?
@rockingtushar
2 years back?
Dude are you serious
what about pune ? Dantewada ? Kashmir ?
Even when someone calls and tells police they will ignore us ,you seriously think they will do something with encrypted info ..
@poachedgreeneggs They (India intelligence) were able to intercept satellite calls made from Pakistan to terrorists during 21/11 attacks. Even BBC/NGC documentary on those attacks carried the complete conversation between them and credited the source to be Indian Intelligence Agencies. So, i think, there is hope.
@ipconfig
Intelligence agencies are different from these bureaucrats and netas ,who do not understand encryption or HTTPS..ii do not see RAW asking for these intercepts
Oh I get it. It's a picture of Camp Crystal Lake, Jason's in the water!
@JinX ooooo. that is a bit tangential but i'm going to give that a pass. good catch, i was getting concerned.
No Jason!? WTF?!
Its the lake
RIM reportedly working with India...
Just bribe the right folks every 4 years or whenever the elected officials change.
I just signed up to point out that while there's no Jason in this one, but there's a surprise on the keyboard.
Is it really so surprising that they would give in to the largest concentration of people per square kilometer in the entire world?? I would have been more surprised if they hadn't.
Even Engadget doesn't want to waste time on the fledging Blackberry, no picure of Jason, lol.
Hi ,
A question for the Appdev geeks here .
Now that blackberry is almost removing encryption ,or giving away the encryption passwords to goverenments .
Is it possible for users to build their own apps on top of its messaging services?
Can we build a simple text based encryption at the application layer level,and share passwords in private.
If this is possible ,Me and my friends are ready to jump into blackberry app development..
I fail to imagine why are my Indian fellow-mates even discussing Terrorism over here, I think our and the other governments are far to smart to be able to extract information in spite of having these restrictions when and whenever needed..
This move is purely to trace and mark 'black money laundering' and deals that happen allot over BBM's. Besides with rising popularity of iPhone 4 - RIM does need some marketing to stay afloat.