RIM Concedes to Indian Gov't Spying on Blackberry

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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It seems like RIM is trying to avoid a costly confrontation with the Indian Government and has finally agreed to provide the means for the government to intercept messages between Blackberry handsets in a readable format, effectively giving India the tools to spy on all Blackberry customers in the country.

Its failure to keep up on the innovation front means that the company is clearly struggling. But kowtowing to a government by allowing it to spy on users is hardly the sort of thing that's likely to get you more customers.
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If RIM gave India the ability to spy on Blackberry users, you can bet every 1st world government can also. Not to mention any serious hacker.
 
Fuck you RIM.
I am officially getting rid of my Blackberry in the next month.

Buying a Blackberry was the worst technological decision I ever made.
 
As much as I love BlackBerry...uhhhhhhhhhhhh...why the fucking hell did they allow this? What was the Indian government going to do if RIM didn't give into their demands? Ban them? Can India's government ban cellphones?

There's got to be more to this than meets the eye.
 
JoeUser said:
As much as I love BlackBerry...uhhhhhhhhhhhh...why the fucking hell did they allow this? What was the Indian government going to do if RIM didn't give into their demands? Ban them? Can India's government ban cellphones?

There's got to be more to this than meets the eye.
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Ban then? Probably shut down their operations in India and or heavy fines.
 
India is probably RIM's last viable market, they will do anything to stave off their inevitable slide into obscurity.
 
JoeUser said:
As much as I love BlackBerry...uhhhhhhhhhhhh...why the fucking hell did they allow this? What was the Indian government going to do if RIM didn't give into their demands? Ban them? Can India's government ban cellphones?

There's got to be more to this than meets the eye.
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Want to know more? Search the Internet.:cool:

This has been going on for a long time.:p
 
You guys act surprised. Every other manufacturer sold out to governments years ago. Just think next time you use that Apple or Android or Windows phone, you were early to this show already.
 
BBA said:
You guys act surprised. Every other manufacturer sold out to governments years ago. Just think next time you use that Apple or Android or Windows phone, you were early to this show already.
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Proof? Or troll?
 
BBA said:
You guys act surprised. Every other manufacturer sold out to governments years ago. Just think next time you use that Apple or Android or Windows phone, you were early to this show already.
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True.

What makes you think the GOVT doesn't already see everything on iPhones and Androids? Please...

What would you do? I would say a good CEO would comply with govt regulations and requests.
 
JoeUser said:
As much as I love BlackBerry...uhhhhhhhhhhhh...why the fucking hell did they allow this? What was the Indian government going to do if RIM didn't give into their demands? Ban them? Can India's government ban cellphones?

There's got to be more to this than meets the eye.
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BlackBerry's use a non-standard data connection; and the government of India could certainly ask all the carriers that support it to stop, and boom BB customers are screwed. India also prohibits GSM encryption throughout the country, and text messaging in parts. Go freedom!
 
So much for Blackberry being the most secure, they just eliminated one of the few remaining reasons to have a Blackberry. Now ALL cell phone will be unsecure (at least as far as the government is concerned).

Meanwhile the criminals who don't want to be traced will continue to buy pay-as-you-go phone with cash (or a fake ID) and throw them away after a few weeks.
 
What is to stop them from spying on ALL users anywhere in the world. It's not like the tech/ability isn't portable.

No business in their right mind would use RIM anywhere on earth for any sensitive business information/communications.
 
Uh you guys realize this isn't a new thing right? I remember reading last year that another country was going to ban BB unless they did the same thing (Iran I think?). So if you think our US government hasn't had this ability from the begining you are kidding yourself. I'm sure there is a list online somewhere that lists all of the governments that have access to decrypt BB messages.
 
JoeUser said:
As much as I love BlackBerry...uhhhhhhhhhhhh...why the fucking hell did they allow this? What was the Indian government going to do if RIM didn't give into their demands? Ban them? Can India's government ban cellphones?

There's got to be more to this than meets the eye.
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The terrorists responsible for the Mumbai massacre used blackberries to communicate during their attack, thats why. India feels if they could have been spying on all sms messaging at the time they could have prevented it, so they made it into law. RIM sold out because blackberries are very popular in India considering how cheap they are and India's outdated GSM network.

RIM used to have a zero-tolerance policy for giving the means to decipher their encrypted messaging. One can only presume that they have multiple encryption technologies in place now as a result of giving some of it away to India. But one can also presume that it has all been compromised now that india has actual encryption keys and what not in their possession. See it wasnt enough to just unencrypt sms messages, India demanded the actual encryption algorithms to make sure they could always read any blackberry SMS message under any circumstance.
 
Soon, our messenger apps on our phones will have a checkbox for sending messages with SSL.
 
Methadras said:
RIM has lost all credibility at this point.
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I don't think so. If you operate in a country, you follow their laws no matter how tasteless it is. Don't like the law? Don't run your businesses there or sell your products there. The fact that they gave in shows that they care about money first, ideals second. Just like Google in China.

So much for India's title "the world's largest democracy".
 
Mr34727 said:
Proof? Or troll?
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Foxconn's refusal to give into OEM demand to better their workforce policies and treatment? Google's inability to bend the Chinese government's censorship of search results? BBA is right. Corporates worship the almighty dollar before democratic ideals.
 
Oh, thank you RIM for signing your death certificate. I have wanted to get you out of my client's servers for years. Your memory leaking, POS, Java software can finally be removed like the cancer it is in every server room. Finally, I can go to my clients and express my concerns about the security of their email. Granted this decision will have no effect on them, they don't need to know that, but you have given me enough to sow the seeds of paranoia.

For clients with over 100 BB users, you were almost acceptable, but for those thousands whose user base was 20 or less and required the server installed in their environment, you shall soon be gone. With the amount of processor and RAM I will be freeing up, I could probably find the cure for cancer... wouldn't that be ironic?
 
RIM isn't unique in this situation, and you're naive if this "suddenly" makes you upset or suspicious. Let's go down this road a bit...

Skype is often touted as a "secure" form of communication.

China is one of the world's most censored countries, particular with their Internet access/usage.

Skype is allowed in China.

Do the math, people. And China is certainly not alone. You want to do business in country X and country X has enough clout to impact you? You're going to be allowing it. (*Looks at the US in particular.*) Of course governments can get into and/or request information on RIMs users and their conversations.
 
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