Dr. Sidney Schaefer: You know, one thing I learned from my patients… they all hate the phone company. It’s interesting; even the stock holders of the phone company hate the phone company!
V.I. Kydor Kropotkin: I know. Bedouins hate the phone company. Matter of fact, I’ve never been in a country where everybody didn’t hate the phone company.
– The President’s Analyst
Saudi Arabia has become the second country inside of a week to block access to Research in Motion’s BlackBerry devices on grounds of national security.
Nearby United Arab Emirates also blocked BlackBerry service earlier this week, until it could get access to people’s messages. The United Arab Emirates claims it does not have the same kind of surveillance rights to BlackBerry messages as officials in the United States. It has threatened to clamp down on some services unless they get more access.
Governments, including India, Kuwait and Bahrain, are also reportedly considering new requirements on services like BlackBerry to ensure they can monitor electronic messages, says the NY Times.
U.S. law enforcement officials can tap into Blackberry emails and other conversations in the United States as long as they have proper court orders, reports Reuters.
Security experts say that many governments around the world enjoy the ability to monitor BlackBerry conversations as they do communications involving most types of mobile devices.
“The ability to tap communications is a part of surveillance and intelligence and law enforcement all over the world,” said Mark Rasch, former head of the computer crimes unit at the U.S. Department of Justice.
RIM is in an unusual position of having to deal with government requests to monitor its clients because it is the only smartphone maker who manages the traffic of messages sent using its equipment. Other smartphone makers — including Apple, Nokia, HTC and Motorola — leave the work of managing data to the wireless carrier or the customer.
