Saudis reach Blackberry data deal

[Turborama]

Source: UK Press Association

An agreement has been reached between the Saudi Arabian authorities and the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry smart phone, averting a ban on the service.

The deal would involve Research in Motion installing a server in the kingdom, allowing the Saudi government to monitor BlackBerry data, an official said.

The Saudi telecommunications regulatory agency announced earlier this week that BlackBerry's messenger service would be halted on Friday over concerns that its data could not be monitored

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5ilE-0AIgGv11nyMDvF-Plz7dtO4g

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RIM does BlackBerry deal with Saudi Arabia

Agreement will see RIM install a server in the kingdom, allowing authorities to monitor data

Phil Muncaster
V3.co.uk, Aug 07 2010

Research in Motion has reached an agreement with the Saudi government designed to give the authorities in the kingdom greater control over data services and avert the ban on its Messenger service expected to take force yesterday.

The Press Association reports that the Canadian smartphone maker has agreed to install a server in the kingdom, allowing the Saudi government to "monitor" BlackBerry data.

However, there are as yet no details as to how granular these monitoring capabilities will be.

Research in Motion has time and again stated that it cannot and does not give any government the ability to unencrypt the data streams of BlackBerry traffic and any serious capitulation on this front would seriously undermine its security credentials in the market.

Full article: http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2267813/rim-does-blackberry-deal-saudi

[onehandle]

1. Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China... What's the difference? nt

[Turborama]

3. Is that a genuine question? n/t

[denem]

2. Maybe RIM has agreed to route Obama's Blackberry

through the Saudi servers as well. Business is business.

[Xipe Totec]

4. Keeping the kingdom safe from democracy nt