The battle in the mobile phone market is ruthless. If governments of certain countries appear as opponents in that battle, the situation becomes critical. This is exactly what has happened to the globally popular BlackBerry.
Managers of the Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM), which is behind the globally popular communication brand BlackBerry, have been scattered around the world these days, engaged in negotiations with local governments. This has led to the first results. Countries like Saudi Arabia, which with 700,000 users is the largest platform for BlackBerry in the lucrative Middle Eastern market, have reached an agreement with RIM and allowed the continued use of the Messenger service, but on the condition that the servers are located in Saudi Arabia itself, rather than in Canada or the United Kingdom. Some see this as a victory for BlackBerry, while others claim that the state has once again won in the battle for control over sensitive user data.
What is it really about? In recent weeks, several important markets, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and India, have threatened to ban BlackBerry users from using the Messenger service. They are particularly suspicious in India, especially after it became known that the terrorists who attacked Mumbai in 2008 communicated freely through RIM’s servers. The reason is that, unlike other mobile companies, messages sent via BlackBerry go through the company’s servers in Canada and the United Kingdom, where they are encrypted and sent to the recipient. This means that messages sent via BlackBerry completely bypass the possibility of control by local authorities. This allows for uninterrupted and secure communication, even for those who do not have the best intentions. This is a thorn in the side for countries where the fight against terrorism is one of the primary state tasks. Indeed, the nightmare of every intelligence agency is an inaccessible server through which uninterrupted, and more importantly, uncontrolled communication is possible. Therefore, RIM, in order to remain in lucrative markets like Saudi Arabia, agreed to set up the messaging server in the country itself, thereby allowing access to local authorities. After that, Saudi authorities withdrew their threats to ban Messenger.
