BlackBerry ban in India

Email being accessed on a BlackBerry phone

I recently read a headline ‘India threatens to ban Blackberry email, messaging’. As I read the article I realized that the reason for the ban was that the government could not access BlackBerry users’ encrypted e-mails and instant messages. My first thought was, why would the government want to have access to people’s personal and private conversations.

My second thought was, is it right for the government to spy on legitimate and confidential communication? Citizens also have a right to privacy. Business users, for example, need some encryption, hence, the popularity of the BlackBerry within businesses.

The BlackBerry phones were to be banned in the hope to guard against abuse by criminals and terrorists. It was argued that terrorists could use Blackberry phone security features to communicate. This is understandable in that India has experienced terrorism in the past but my concern was whether the banning of the BlackBerry phone will really make a difference in stopping terrorism.

BlackBerry's encrypted corporate e-mails would probably not be used by terrorists as they would probably prefer more anonymous technologies, like Gmail. However, it could be easy for a militant group to set up a front corporation, using BlackBerry corporate e-mail. For example, Islamic militants have used mobile and satellite phones to organize the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The ban will affect about 1.1 million BlackBerry users in India and it has already affected the device’s sales. People are not willing to pay for a phone that could possibly be banned in the very near future.

But the problem has not been resolved and the BlackBerry phone is still under threat. Research in Motion (RIM) has two months to give security officials access to BlackBerry encrypted data. It will then be decided whether BlackBerry phones can continue to be used in India.

The problem still stands. If RIM provide security officials access to encrypted data the government can spy on your legitimate communication and there is no real guarantee that it will curb terrorism in India.

Thanks to Ian Lamont for photograph. Follow Ian's photostream to view more images.