Saudi Arabia Bans Blackberry
Saudi Arabia’s telecom watchdog asked telecommunications companies in the country to block the function of sending messages from Blackberry phones starting on Friday (08/06). The Commission said the ban will apply until the third mobile phone operator owned by the government “to meet the required regulatory requirements.”
But the Communications and Information Technology Commission, CITC, did not reveal the terms in question. On Sunday (01/08) United Arab Emirates threatened to ban a number of features of the Blackberry.
The data in code
Both Gulf countries have announced a ban on a number of features of the Blackberry mobile phones for reasons of security fears.
United Arab Emirates wants to block the sending of electronic mail or email, access to the internet and sending short messages between BlackBerry owners.
Saudi Arabia previously announced plans to prevent the use of short messaging feature between phones Blackberry.
The two countries were not happy because they can not monitor the communications that occur between phones Blackberry.
This is because the Blackberry mobile phone by automatically changing the message into data in a password that is sent to a server computer located outside the two countries.
‘Need to privacy’
Meanwhile, Blackberry maker Research in Motion, RIM, said the contents of one article in Economic Times of India newspaper said the company would allow the country’s security agencies to monitor the Blackberry service.
“We will not compromise about our enterprise email security patterns,” said a spokeswoman for RIM India, Satchit Gayakwad.
“We respect the requirements of oversight agencies related to security, but we also think that customers need privacy.”
In another written statement, the company said has been working closely with all countries “with consistent standards and levels of the same prudence.”
The company also denied ever giving the request a specific country that is not given to other countries.
This controversy arose when RIM has launched its latest model of Blackberry that is called by the name of Torch.
This phone offers touch screen technology and a mini keyboard that will go on sale in the United States on 12 August. (BBC)
