Behind the Blackberry ban (2024)

Blackberries offer encrypted messaging prompting a ban in some countries [Reuters]

It has not been a good week for Blackberry users in the Middle East.

First came the news that the United Arab Emirates (UAE)would ban the devices in October, then Saudi Arabia announced it would block the Blackberry instant messenger function from Friday.

Days later, Lebanon said it would be conducting its own review intouse of the devices, whose encrypted data transfer services have raised fears they could be used for crime, terrorism or even espionage.

The governments in questionwant access to the data sent and received by Blackberry users, whichis currently stored beyond the reach of authorities on theservers of Research in Motion (RIM), Blackberry’s operator, in Canada.

RIM have refused to hand over the data, and so authorities havedecided to ban Blackberry services rather than continue to allow an uncontrolled and unmonitoredflow of electronicinformationwithin their borders.

The UAE issued a statement explaining the decision, saying it hadcome because “certain Blackberry services” allow users to avoid “any legal accountability”, raising “judicial, social and national security concerns”.

The impendingbans have been met with understandable anger from Blackberry users, who have accused the authorities of censorship and seeking to spy on their private information.

But is it really that surprising that governments in the region want access to their citizens’ communications?

Exception to the rule

Many countries monitor communications within their borders; in fact the Blackberry ‘loophole’ is very much an exception to the rule.In some countriesevery text message, email and internet search made by a user can be accessed by government agencies if required.

Experts point out that countries in the Middle East are not alone in seeking access to Blackberry’s data, and say that other governmentsappear to have been allowedto monitor Blackberrycommunications in a bid to secure access tolucrative markets.

“It seems that the number of large countries, particularly China and India, have been able to persuade Research in Motion to give those countries thefull abilityto look at traffic flowing throughtheir Blackberry networks, whereas smaller countries, like the UAE, it seemsthey are not willing to give that capability to,” Ian Brown, a senior fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, says.

“There are certainly countries all round the world, including the US and the UK, where governments have said that they want thissortof interception capability.”

So is this a simple case of corporate double standards driven by the size of market at stake? Maybe not,data security expertssay, pointing out that the US and the UK have laws dictatingexactly howcommunications data can be used by governments.

In contrast, Middle Eastern countriesdo not have the sameprivacy protections, and experts say thatthis, not the fact that governments have access to itfirst place, is thereal cause for concern.

“If you look at the UK there are various safeguards in place, such as judicial overview. The concern that people have is how secure is their data going to be in the UAE?” Nigel Stanley, an IT security expert, says.

Spyware text message

Thomas Shambler, the Dubai-based editor of the Middle East edition of Stuff magazine, said that misgivings were not surprising given the history of state-backed telecommunications surveillance in the region.

“Last year Etislat [a national mobile-service provider in the UAE]sent out a text message to lots of its users,” he says.”That text message led users to download spyware.”

Days after the text message, which promised to improve service but actually contained eavesdropping software, was sent to UAE Blackberry users, RIM issued a patch to remove the spyware, effectively thwarting the first attempt to monitorBlackberry communications in the Emirates.

But are Blackberry users really worried iftheirdata is made available for scrutiny?

Shamblersays that Dubai’s estimated 500,000 Blackberrycustomers are more concerned about losing access to their services than theyare about being spied on by the government.

“People here aren’t so much angry about the UAE looking at private data,” he says.

“They are more worried about how they are going to send emails, how they are going to private message people, how they are going to stay in touch with work when they are out and about.”

Others warn that shrugging off surveillance in this way is a dangerous approach.

“Some people’s attitude is nothing to hide, nothing to fear. But the reality is if governments want to get their data, then they will do,” Stanley says.

With technology advancing faster than governments can keep up, he predicts that effective surveillance will become less feasiblefor states to conductin the future.

“It’s very difficult for governments to win in the long run against these sort of technologies,” he says.

Looking at figures showing the growth of electronic data in recent years, it is not difficult to follow his logic. An estimated 2.8 million emails are nowsent everysecond; eventually, experts say, governments will simply not be able to track thetidal waveof informationflowing aroundthe world.

But that will bescant comfort for Blackberry usersin the region. Unless a compromise can be found, theyareabout to find out first-handjusthow fargovernments will go to keep a gripon telecommunications in a rapidly changing world.