After much of criticism, dialogs, allegations and many turning points Research in Motion (RIM), makers of BlackBerry, has cracked a deal with Saudi Arabia Regulatory Authority to ensure uninterrupted services for all Blackberry users in kingdom as report by wsj. With such agreement on Saturday RIM averted the possible ban on BlackBerry services due to accessibility issue on user’s data.
The agreement, which would involve placing a BlackBerry server inside Saudi Arabia, would allow the government to monitor users’ messages and allay official fears the service could be used for criminal purposes. Saudi Government announced the ban on BlackBerry services from Friday due to security reasons.
RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, faces growing scrutiny over its BlackBerry e-mail and messaging services in countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and India. Indonesia, the world’s fourth most-populous nation, also expressed concern about BlackBerry services. The U.S. and Canadian governments said this week they’re in talks with foreign governments to find a solution. RIM CEO, Mike Lazaridis, alleged governments of such nations of being unfair to score political points.
The deal could have wide-ranging implications for several other countries, including India and the United Arab Emirates, who have expressed similar concerns over BlackBerry services and warned to face ban if failed to oblige their requirements. RIM has faced huge losses in last few days after its stocks fell by about 4 percent on Nasdaq on Tuesday and same results on Wednesday. Company lost $2.7 billion in stocks despite the launch of new BlackBerry smartphone “Torch” due to possible market disconnect from few nations including India and Indonesia, one of the biggest mobile market across the globe.
After this deal, it would be interesting to see the next move of RIM who would be now under tremendous pressure from other nations to have local server setups to respect concerns of security.
How far do you think its fair enough to track & monitor communications of telecoms users ? Let us know your views in comment section.
