"BlackBerry hands over user data to help police," insider says...
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Just sad that BlackBerry tries to cash-in on the 'Privacy' theme and then it turns out they volunteer out users privacy without even going through the checks and procedure that Canadian law has put in place for foreign governments to make requests through the legal system from companies like BlackBerry.
A little too eager to 'cooperate'. To a cynic, might even give the wrong impression that it could've been done to help with negotiations of government purchases of devices.
Passport/SQW100-3 .2876 CB10 06-09-16 08:08 PMLike 3 -
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Smart Pill---Rabbit droppings, in Yooperland legend said to increase intelligence.06-09-16 09:01 PMLike 0 - "The company also helped authenticate*BBM messages in Major League Baseball's drug investigation that saw New York Yankees star Alex*Rodriguez suspended in 2014."
How do you explain this terrorist criminal activity...^^^
Poor A-Rod, he's probably crying somewhere in his mansion in pile of money.. darn you BlackBerry
Via-Blackberry Passport Silver EditionDunt Dunt Dunt likes this.06-09-16 09:47 PMLike 1 - 06-09-16 09:47 PMLike 2
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Okay, there are probably less BBM users these days, but sooner or later everyone writes something suspicious that can be reported to LE.
Your avatar for example shows the member of a criminal organisation, certainly worth a dossier over 12-24 months.06-10-16 08:08 AMLike 0 - Assuming they can charge LE for these services, I would expect this department still exists.
Okay, there are probably less BBM users these days, but sooner or later everyone writes something suspicious that can be reported to LE.
Your avatar for example shows the member of a criminal organisation, certainly worth a dossier over 12-24 months.
It's been clear for YEARS that BBM wasn't secure and that BlackBerry was working with law enforcement. Not all criminals are as out of touch as El Chapo was about the limitations of a non-BES BlackBerry.
A $50 burner phone with WhatsApp meets most of their needs now...06-10-16 08:30 AMLike 0 - I doubt there are as many request as they once received. Even criminals have moved on.....
It's been clear for YEARS that BBM wasn't secure and that BlackBerry was working with law enforcement. Not all criminals are as out of touch as El Chapo was about the limitations of a non-BES BlackBerry.
A $50 burner phone with WhatsApp meets most of their needs now...
Smart Pill---Rabbit droppings, in Yooperland legend said to increase intelligence.06-10-16 08:51 AMLike 0 - 06-10-16 09:00 AMLike 0
- I think everyone needs to climb down off the ledge and try to understand the detail here.....
Governments don't need access to Apple or Android devices because they can be either "jailbroken" or "routed" and so no concerns from authorities as they can "hack" them anytime they want. Not so with Blackberry, and so naturally they worry what information is moving through Blackberry's private network inaccessible to law enforcement's prying eyes. If Blackberry was to deny ANY access, those devices would not be permitted to operate in any country given the current threat-rich climate. Blackberry, rather than providing interactive access to security folks, have elected to provide selective legally backed requests for information pertaining to certain individuals while still never allowing access to the network.
This is certainly a reasonable position, if you have a un-hackable network it might end up as a haven for all sorts of bad-actors, which I think is something no one wants or is even asking for. Legally-backed access means there has been some judicial review of the request and that it is reasonable and is in the interests of the society at large. Further, the request is also limited to the required information for the matter at hand and not a state-sponsored fishing exercise.
So, many will say, "what about the countries with poor human rights with oppressive police forces, could this be used as a way to persecute certain groups or persons?" Probably not. For one, these agencies would need to have a constant stream of requests going to Blackberry, which we now know are reviewed by a small group and is clearly not set-up to accommodate large volumes. Also, because of the natural limitations qualified requests have and the focused scope to one person or group, bad actors would realize quickly this is not the high volume solution they want and will look for other ways to persecute their own people, for which they seem to have limitless inventive ideas. Even when bad actors have directly challenged Blackberry for full interactive network access, they have responded by threatening to leave the country, such as the recent case in Pakistan.
One last comment and that has to do with the Corporate clients who have their own BES Servers. They are not a part of this discussion as they create their own security keys, which even Blackberry cannot and does not know. So they are completely safe from any legal or casual surveillance, even if Blackberry was to ever allowed it. In that case the legal request would need to go directly to the suspect company, bypassing Blackberry completely.
So, this is my long-winded explanation of Blackberry's position which is not a headline or sound-byte but a well though out strategy to balance the need for user privacy while not providing a platform for unrestrained criminal activity.Last edited by EchoTango; 06-10-16 at 03:51 PM.
06-10-16 01:57 PMLike 2 - Bla1zeCB OG"The company also helped authenticate*BBM messages in Major League Baseball's drug investigation that saw New York Yankees star Alex*Rodriguez suspended in 2014."
How do you explain this terrorist criminal activity...^^^
Poor A-Rod, he's probably crying somewhere in his mansion in pile of money.. darn you BlackBerry
Via-Blackberry Passport Silver Edition06-10-16 02:28 PMLike 0 - I think everyone needs to climb down off the ledge and try to understand the detail here.....
Governments don't need access to Apple or Android devices because they can be either "jailbroken" or "routed" and so no concerns from authorities as they can "hack" them anytime they want. Not so with Blackberry, and so naturally they worry what information is moving through Blackberry's private network inaccessible to law enforcement's prying eyes. If Blackberry was to deny ANY access, those devices would not be permitted to operate in any country given the current threat-rich climate. Blackberry, rather than providing interactive access to security folks, have elected to provide selective legally backed requests for information pertaining to certain individuals while still never allowing access to the network.
This is certainly a reasonable position, if you have a un-hackable network it might end up as a haven for all sorts of bad-actors, which I think is something no one wants or is even asking for. Legally-backed access means there has been some judicial review of the request and that it is reasonable and is in the interests of the society at large. Further, the request is also limited to the required information for the matter at hand and not a state-sponsored fishing exercise.
So, many will say, "what about the countries with poor human rights with oppressive police forces, could this be used as a way to persecute certain groups or persons?" Probably not. For one, these agencies would need to have a constant stream of requests going to Blackberry, which we now know are reviewed by a small group and is clearly not set-up to accommodate large volumes. Also, because of the natural limitations qualified requests have and the focused scope to one person or group, bad actors would realize quickly this is not the high volume solution they want and will look for other ways to persecute their own people, for which they seem to have limitless inventive ideas. Even when bad actors have directly challenged Blackberry for full interactive network access, they have responded by threatening to leave the country, such as the recent case in Pakistan.
One last comment and that has to do with the Corporate clients who have their own BES Servers. They are not a part of this discussion as they create their own security keys, which even Blackberry cannot and does not know. So they are completely safe from any legal or casual surveillance, even if Blackberry was to ever allowed it. In that case the legal request would need to go directly to the suspect company, bypassing Blackberry completely.
So, this is my long-winded explanation of Blackberry's position which is not a headline or sound-byte but a well though out strategy to balance the need for user privacy while not providing a platform for unrestrained criminal activity.
Doesn't the adverb embellishment in the first sentence of the article the OP quoted, and the smokescreen of unidentified, unauthorized sources contain certain elements that sound, well, just a little, off, a little dubious? Just asking.
Information can be angled to misconstrue facts in order to give a totally different first impression. It doesn't matter whether the information is accurate and precise, as long as it can be click-bate for a news article, or perhaps be done with an agenda to harm a competitor. Interesting that this article, which has no verified (named) sources, is missing information about the BES servers, BB's stance in the issue with Pakistan, etc. Plus the article showed up just around the time of BlackBerry announcing their updates to their enterprise portfolio and the upcoming security conference. It gave only part of the picture. Also, there is already a statement from BlackBerry about these matters so the rest is old news.Jahcure likes this.06-10-16 05:17 PMLike 1 -
Isn't that how China regards it?06-10-16 05:43 PMLike 0 - I think everyone needs to climb down off the ledge and try to understand the detail here.....
One last comment and that has to do with the Corporate clients who have their own BES Servers. They are not a part of this discussion as they create their own security keys, which even Blackberry cannot and does not know. So they are completely safe from any legal or casual surveillance, even if Blackberry was to ever allowed it. In that case the legal request would need to go directly to the suspect company, bypassing Blackberry completely.
What if the US government wants to find out some French or German company's secrets that competes, say with Tesla, or Google's driverless cars business or Boeing ?06-10-16 05:51 PMLike 0 - I don't see your point. Which one of those requests reported by the CBC article do you not agree with? To me, they all sound like reasonable request and BlackBerry is helping the public interest. You can imagine the danger to public safety if there is absolutely no access to the BBM messages. You'd effectively create a safe channel of communications for potential criminals. Is that what we want? What have we become to have so little faith in government nowadays?06-11-16 01:14 AMLike 0
- I don't see your point. Which one of those requests reported by the CBC article do you not agree with? To me, they all sound like reasonable request and BlackBerry is helping the public interest. You can imagine the danger to public safety if there is absolutely no access to the BBM messages. You'd effectively create a safe channel of communications for potential criminals. Is that what we want? What have we become to have so little faith in government nowadays?
2) Blackberry's sp�t with Pakistan last year was about BES licenses, not regular BBM. Yet they came to an agreement. This suggests, especially based on the most recent revelations, that BlackBerry can intercept BES messages and deliver them to the authorities, even in a country like Pakistan.
By his actions and public statements, Chen has managed to kill not only BB10 and hardware, but also any semblance of privacy or security that the BlackBerry name used to represent.
No company and no consumer would want a BlackBerry device or even a BlackBerry software license now.
He is also killing the software business if nobody trusts BlackBerry to keep their information secret.crackberry_geek and morfinpower like this.06-11-16 03:25 AMLike 2 - You may want to take a close look at this page.06-11-16 03:48 AMLike 0
- You are all forgetting that Blackberry's biggest customers, or only customers are governments. Reason why they are what they are is Canadian government. They are like the best buds and for them to say NO to them would be illogical.
On contrary I'm still waiting for any country to proclaim data mining a crime without service being properly labeled as Private Data Collection for Sharing Purposes. This would look something like this: Google Maps will not be considered a map service but private data collection and tracking service with right to share the collected information which in return gives their customers a benefit of using and interacting with detailed map data and navigation.
This would raise the awareness how serious data mining truly is.06-11-16 04:21 AMLike 0 - Its always been silly. I truly find it hilarious that people think e.g. Google is worse than others, when its clear they are all the same. Where people think companies like Blue Kai get their 'big data' from??? Lol.06-11-16 05:52 AMLike 0
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Given that BlackBerry doesn't even release a transparency report, I doubt they have any qualms about cooperating with secret courts in a similar fashion. Hell, they can't even be bothered to take advantage of the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty to run the requests past Canadian courts, which I still find shocking and absurd. Apple, Microsoft and Google have all challenged their own government in court on privacy issues, but BlackBerry won't even make sure requests meet the standards of Canadian law.06-11-16 10:05 AMLike 3 - You can imagine the danger to public safety if there is absolutely no access to the BBM messages. You'd effectively create a safe channel of communications for potential criminals. Is that what we want? What have we become to have so little faith in government nowadays?
Or should they turn off end to end encryption for BES accounts? Do you consider those to be public safety risks?06-11-16 10:12 AMLike 2
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