BlackBerry announced its decision to pull out of Pakistan by the end of 2015 due to government surveillance, which equals to intrusion into user privacy. The problem is that Pakistani government has banned the use of BlackBerry Enterprise servers providing encrypted data and communications services to the company?s mobile phones.
Smartphone and secure communications company BlackBerry confirmed that it would exit the country entirely on 30 December. On that date, all BlackBerry mobile phones in Pakistan will cease to operate. Earlier, BlackBerry claimed it would quit the country in November, but the ban on its servers was put back by a month by the local government.
According to BlackBerry?s COO, the Pakistani government required that BlackBerry Enterprise Service allowed it to monitor all traffic in the country, including all email and BBM messages. Of course, BlackBerry refused to comply with such directive, announcing that it would never support ?back doors? granting open access to its clients? data, because secure communications is its top priority. BlackBerry also pointed out that it has never done this anywhere in the world.
Industry observers remind that Pakistan?s Telecommunications Authority ordered mobile phone operators and BlackBerry to cease using BlackBerry Enterprise servers this past summer for ?security reasons?. As you know, BlackBerry?s secure servers can?t be intercepted by any third party, including the Pakistan government, which means that messaging services, email and browsing can be obfuscated from snooping. At the same time, the company promises to respond to ?lawful government investigative requests of criminal activity?.
BlackBerry explained that Pakistan?s demand was not a question of public safety ? instead, Pakistan was demanding unfettered access to all of the company?s client information. It can be noted that the company has faced similar problems in India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, and 5 years ago BlackBerry had to quit the UAE and Saudi Arabia for the same reasons. Later, bans were lifted in some states but with tightened restrictions.
Talking about Pakistan, BlackBerry?s exit followed a ramping up of the state surveillance, which the privacy activists consider an abuse of communications surveillance powers. link
