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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday December 01 2015, @11:09PM   Printer-friendly
from the privacy-matters dept.

Blackberry has decided to exit Pakistan by the end of 2015 rather than comply with government data retention requests:

Phone-maker Blackberry is to stop operating in Pakistan at the end of 2015 because of government requests to monitor customer data. The Pakistani government wanted to be able to monitor every message and email sent via its phones, it said. In a blogpost, it said it had decided to "exit the market altogether" over the row. It said Pakistan's demand was not to do with public safety but a request for "unfettered access".

In July, Pakistan's Telecommunications Authority told Blackberry the servers underpinning its messaging business would no longer be allowed to operate in the country, citing "security reasons". Marty Beard, chief operating officer at Blackberry, said the "truth" of the matter was Pakistan had wanted to look at all the traffic passing across its messaging servers but the phone company would not "comply with that sort of directive".

"Remaining in Pakistan would have meant forfeiting our commitment to protect our users' privacy. That is a compromise we are not willing to make," wrote Mr Beard.

This led Pakistan to tell Blackberry its servers could no longer operate in the country. Mr Beard said Blackberry did not support "backdoors" that would grant open access to customers' information and had never complied with such a request anywhere in the world.

Maybe they deserve more than a 0.5% share of the global smartphone market.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2015, @02:10AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 02 2015, @02:10AM (#270450)

    Since you did not bother to RTFA let me point out the flaw in your jumping of the gun logic:

    The truth is that the Pakistani government wanted the ability to monitor all BlackBerry Enterprise Service traffic in the country, including every BES e-mail and BES BBM message. But BlackBerry will not comply with that sort of directive. As we have said many times, we do not support “back doors” granting open access to our customers’ information and have never done this anywhere in the world.

    Pakistan’s demand was not a question of public safety; we are more than happy to assist law enforcement agencies in investigations of criminal activity. Rather, Pakistan was essentially demanding unfettered access to all of our BES customers’ information.

    Now. Does the NSA have that level of access to BES' databases? I doubt it, and don't even try to mention the vacuuming of all Internet traffic. Even that would not scoop up a complete database unless it was being transmitted in whole unencrypted (or effectively so w/ weak encryption or personnel mistakes). Laws requiring the company assist law enforcement with criminal investigations and laws demanding complete, unfettered, unrestricted, and unlimited access to all company data are two completely different things. Put your tinfoil away please.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by edIII on Wednesday December 02 2015, @02:52AM

    by edIII (791) on Wednesday December 02 2015, @02:52AM (#270461)

    Laws requiring the company assist law enforcement with criminal investigations and laws demanding complete, unfettered, unrestricted, and unlimited access to all company data are two completely different things. Put your tinfoil away please.

    It's gathering dust in the drawer actually. I put it away after Snowden ;)

    I agree too. Due process and mass surveillance are two completely different things. I also know that the NSA is doing the latter and not the former. Does the NSA have unfettered access to BES' databases? Yes, they do. They already have completely unfettered access to the other telecommunications carriers. Do you have some reason to believe that BB is an exception, and that NSA agents didn't visit their executives too?

    Not only that, but the fight against mass surveillance failed. The government is busy making it completely legal to do what they already decided to do after 9/11. It's as if you think the FBI created their point-n-click surveillance and intercept platform (DCSNet) with the knowledge the data feeds would be dead or something.

    Today, most carriers maintain their own central hub, called a "mediation switch," that's networked to all the individual switches owned by that carrier, according to the FBI. The FBI's DCS software links to those mediation switches over the internet, likely using an encrypted VPN. Some carriers run the mediation switch themselves, while others pay companies like VeriSign to handle the whole wiretapping process for them.

    I'm honestly bemused that you think BB is private from the U.S government, and that they're aren't directly allowing backdoors into their systems. It's standard operating procedure in the U.S, and most likely any Five-Eyes country as well.

    What's not tin-foil hattery either is the direction of the FCC in regards to privacy and Internet based communications. Those "mediation switches" are really the Carnivore system in action, or an earlier version of the DCS system. It's completely legal because ostensibly there is due process.... but on the honor system. The FBI simply promises that they are running a warrant based intercept system, but it's no more solid than how Wall Street kept track of all the mortgage notes. The system isn't even setup to throw stops on warrant checks. It's truly just point, click, violate civil rights.

    When the FCC finally classifies Internet based messaging and voice services the same way they do telephone conversations, then the "mediation switches" will expand into those platforms too officially in a very pervasive manner. Of course, every major telecommunications carrier is already participating in an industry wide push to integrate with DCSNet, and they're not waiting for the FBI to succeed in pushing their desired regulations into effect.

    They even have in industry newsletter and regular meetings, all run by the FBI, in order to effect a more smooth transition to the new intercept platform, DSCNet.

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.