RIM to Give India Access to BlackBerry Servers

[JMcEntegart]

Research In Motion shares dropped yesterday amid reports that the company has agreed to give India access to its servers.

RIM to Give India Access to BlackBerry Servers : Read more

 

[insider3]

More technology less privacy.

 

[ikefu]

The problem with governments is they never stop at what you give them. They have a billion dollar deficit, so we give them a billion dollars in new taxes, and all they do is find a billion dollars of new spending and fall farther behind.

You give them access to blackberry messenger because they cried that they couldn't break your encryption and tomorrow they're going to cry that they can't access your e-mail or listen in to your calls.

The sad part is they're only crying about Blackberry which means they've already hacked every other phone available. BB was the only one they couldn't and now that's gone...

 

[hellwig]

I assume RIM has separate, independent, and isolated servers for their Indian customers, correct? I would hate to think India and other countries might use access to RIMs servers to spy on people that aren't citizens of those respective countries.

 

[borisof007]

And so begins the cascade of giving every country access.

 

[jerreece]

BOOOO on RIM!!!

Guess my next phone won't be a BlackBerry... which really bums me out.

 

[gm0n3y]

[citation][nom]jerreece[/nom]BOOOO on RIM!!!Guess my next phone won't be a BlackBerry... which really bums me out.[/citation]
You do realize that this just puts them on the same level as every other phone? Actually they're still better than all other phones because at least they're encrypted even if the government is being handed a key to the back door.

 

[DokkRokken]

[citation][nom]ikefu[/nom]The problem with governments is they never stop at what you give them.[/citation]

Well said. And with these agreements, how long will it be until these countries demand to see emails sent by their citizens within other nations? It's a slippery slope.

The best part here is that this was all done in the name of terrorism. India wanted access because their intelligence service was incompetent in regards to the Mumbai bombings. But of course, it's easier to scapegoat a corporation than it is to blame oneself. It's been said all over that if someone wants to communicate secretly, they can and they will find new ways, like hiding messages within pictures or other media. You can bet any smart person looking to do harm has already found a new way to spread their hate, while normal people's privacy, and that of corporations who want to protect their IP get the short end of the stick.

 

[willgart]

Well... its another demonstration that the law is better than a company.
And a company need a market to get money... so they'll always says "yes".
Only in US and Canada the companies are better than the government.
At the same time the FBI want to setup a system to scan everything on the internet... which cost a lot... to do what? exactly what the indian gvt does! controling and sniffing the information.
Why that don't just vote a law to accomplish this? easy, clear, low cost...
oups... "low cost" means that a company will not win some money. (and the FBI budget will be reduced)

So finally there is governments which do it clearly and the others hide that they do this today!
What is the difference?

 

[rd350]

well this was all done to prevent another 26/11

 

[Kami3k]

[citation][nom]DokkRokken[/nom]Well said. And with these agreements, how long will it be until these countries demand to see emails sent by their citizens within other nations? [/citation]

And you are clueless about the internet and the real world. Like this doesn't happen already? Seriously?

 

[DokkRokken]

[citation][nom]Kami3k[/nom]And you are clueless about the internet and the real world. Like this doesn't happen already? Seriously?[/citation]

Not with RIM's system.

 

[Kami3k]

[citation][nom]DokkRokken[/nom]Not with RIM's system.[/citation]

Says who? Them? Or is the the CIA/NSA saying it?

What's to say the major intelligence agencies of the world don't already have access to it with or without them knowing?

 

[Guest]

When US and Canada got access there was no cry. And you guys crying were to first one to lose privacy. Lol. Now, its just Indians who will have their messages recorded by the intelligence. That's fine. No i guess people commenting negatively are either retarded or Don't understand technology.

 

[alyoshka]

Well, this is a very old issue
http/www.engadget.com/2008/03/12/indian-blackberry-network-to-be-shut-down-unless-rim-allows-gove/

And I think the Government of India has been pretty lenient with RIM in allowing this sort of functioning for so long.
The government does not have the time , energy or resources to snoop or spy on it's citizens here, and the citizens are pretty much in favor of this either being banned or then opened, since it is finally for their own security.
In this country we have 1.15Billion citizens, out of which roughly 1 million use the blackberry.
For us it ain't that big a number but for a corporate telecommunication giant it is still a hell of a big number.

I personally feel that as a citizen of this country, I rather let the government snoop onto my stuff since I and a billion more people don't have anything to hide. But for the million out there , users who certainly seen to need that bit of security, I guess they do have something to hide, that's why the ruckus.

And for those who didn't know it, around the world, all your governments are already spying on you, we must be the last in that category to come into play.

And if you go through certain bits of the extradition treaty and the Terrorism Legislation between India and Canada, you'd be able to see , how difficult it would be to obtain the few mails and messages, that would be required to put a Terrorist behind bars or in fact get him to trial just in case the government had to access BB info from RIM.
So, it's pretty late, but , better late then never.

 

[rohitbaran]

I hope India doesn't end up banning the service like some countries did a while ago.

 

[gm0n3y]

The likelyhood of actually being killed by a terrorist is so minuscule that you are more likely to get struck by lightning or eaten by a shark. These security measures are not necessary. Our world is already a pretty safe place.

 

[kkiddu]

@gm0n3y The problem with terrorists is not the number of people they kill. Rather, it's the amount of terror they inspire. So if strict security measures (I won't get into the argument of if snooping Blackberries is one of them) are not taken, they'll get a free rein and then kill more, and the terror they inspire will multiply in intensity and range by 10 times.

 

[gm0n3y]

[citation][nom]kkiddu[/nom]@gm0n3y The problem with terrorists is not the number of people they kill. Rather, it's the amount of terror they inspire. So if strict security measures (I won't get into the argument of if snooping Blackberries is one of them) are not taken, they'll get a free rein and then kill more, and the terror they inspire will multiply in intensity and range by 10 times.[/citation]
I disagree. If the government cut their security spending in half and spent one hundredth of that on educating the public on how little terrorism there actually is, people wouldn't be so scared. If people aren't scared by the terrorist acts, then the terrorists really wouldn't have a point in continuing. Let our current, adequate laws take care of these criminals.

 

[eddieroolz]

Its a shame that BlackBerry security has eroded so much in the past two weeks.