Yesterday, we had heard that each wireless service provider in Saudi Arabia was having a dedicated server tested to handle BlackBerry traffic and meet regulatory requirements. Today, the Communications and Information Technology Commission has announced that “in light of the positive developments toward addressing some of the organizational requirements … the commission decided to allow BlackBerry Messenger service to continue.” That’s not exactly saying that RIM is giving Saudi Arabia complete access to BlackBerry communications within the country (or that those three servers are actually in place, or a permanent solution is established), but the statement certainly implies it. Despite privacy concerns, Saudi Arabian end-users will be able to rest easy, and not have to worry about their BlackBerry service getting cut off in the immediate future.
BlackBerry has been making progress in India by offering message metadata, which could be a way for RIM to offer the Saudis some tracking capability without giving up any cryptographic keys. Maybe simply having local servers will enable the CITC to acquire warrants for access, rather than them needing to have continual surveillance on what’s going through them. RIM maintains that BlackBerry security is still bulletproof, and nobody should be worried about foreign snooping, however they’re also intently keen on meeting the standards set by law.
Kuwait has since backed down from a BlackBerry ban, and the local states of Oman and Bahrain have said definitively that they won’t interrupt service. The United Arab Emirates was the first one to recently voice concerns, followed shortly Lebanon, Indonesia, Tunisia, and Algeria. It’ll be interesting to see if they demand a solution similar to Saudi Arabia’s for keeping tabs on BlackBerry communications, but no matter how that problemresolves, it will be especially difficult for local governments to tap into anything sent over a BES.
[via Reuters]