"The US government is not alone in wanting to snoop on everything citizens do over email/phone. The Indian government wants that right too. RIM is stating they have no means to decrypt, no master key, and no back door to allow the government to access email." The article notes that 114,000 BlackBerries are in use on the Indian subcontinent. The government is concerned about attacks by militants and sees the BlackBerry as a security risk.
Yeah, but it's a good thing RIM is standing up and not allowing the privacy to be compromised. I can understand both sides, but this could also be an invasion of a lot of companies' inner workings, leading to a lot of scandals. A lot of time bombs waiting to go off if RIM allowed a government in
I see this as a pretty slippery slope for RIM. If they provide that sort of information to the Indian government, surely other governments would demand similar treatment--for general monitoring as well as for national security. Giving in is a pretty easy way to globally destroy the brand in no time.
This activity on the part of the Indian government is typical of the worldwide decline in personal privacy. Opening the RIM system to snooping in India would be the first step in snooping worldwide. What makes anyone think that NSA or CIA or KGB couldn't compromise or suborn the Indian system for their own use. I am conservative and support the war on terror but this is a slippery slope indeed. I hope RIM will stand their ground!
The Indian gov't needs to focus on improving the daily lives of their citizen's and maybe they wouldn't have to worry so much about terrorism. They still use the caste system and do not provide an income level that would allow families to rise out of poverty and not join terrorist groups.
I also do not want the NSA reading my boring emails about groceries and what my weekend plans are, but they are still my personal emails.
Even though my messages, emails and phone calls do not contain anything illegal, I still do not want the government looking at my private information. The U.S. Constitution almost has no more credibility as it is, if they let this happen we should just return to Medieval Times. It's bad enough they get to use the Patriot Act for any little thing they want. Stand your ground RIM!
RIM gave in. Now what?
It was always a choice between business income and business ethics and MONEY TALKS BABY.
Quite sensible from the point of view of RIM to take such a business minded decision.
And it is not as if each and every mail is scrutinised. Whenever the govt. wants it can retrieve concerned messages/mail from RIM Server.