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Government Security, Policy, Technology
BlackBerry data encryption in Asia
After a jittery week for Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerry, the Indonesian government has said that it will not ban the popular device. But what about governments elsewhere around the world?
Saudi Arabia and UAE are shutting down BlackBerry services such as text messaging, web browsing and email because they object to RIM encrypting data traffic between the device and the server, which is located in Canada.
Encryption makes the data harder to read—so harder for governments to track down criminals or uncover terrorist plots, they say. India, China, Bahrain and Kuwait have voiced similar concerns.
In an interview with FutureGov, the Commissioner of the Indonesian telecommunications regulator said he was confident RIM would allay his government’s concerns over data security by building a data centre in Indonesia.
“We share the same concerns of other countries about BlackBerry’s,” said Heru Sutadi, Commissioner of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (BRTI).
“All BlackBerry data is channeled through Canada, and we cannot monitor it. So we have asked RIM to open a representative office in Indonesia, and build a data centre here. By doing so, we can protect BlackBerry users, and also reduce the cost of BlackBerry services.”
“We are sure that RIM will cooperate,” he added.
RIM has enjoyed phenomenal growth in emerging markets like Indonesia, where sales grew by 500 per cent - to 25 million units - in 2009. “Indonesia is a huge and fast-growing market. RIM will have to think carefully about its plans here,” Sutadi said.
Ironically, the Indonesian government is itself a large user of BlackBerry services. So are the governments of Australia and Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s Deputy Government Chief Information Officer Stephen Mak told FutureGov: “Understanding the global and distributed nature of the internet, we have stipulated in our IT security policy and guidelines that information transmitted over Blackberry services should be non-sensitive in nature.”
Mak and his colleagues sought advice from the Hong Kong telecommunications regulator on wider use of the BlackBerry. “The Blackberry services in question conform with the regulatory requirements in Hong Kong. As such, we do not have plans to ban or limit such services,” he said.
The story is the same in Australia. There, the Attorney-General’s Department told FutureGov in a statement: “Australia has no bans or restrictions on BlackBerry services in Australia.”
The difference between countries’ position on BlackBerry boils down to privacy, technology analyst Ovum suggested in a report this week.
“That all countries conduct surveillance on their citizens is not disputed. The difference is the degree to which the people can hold the government to account for abuse of its powers of surveillance,” said Steve Hodgkinson, Ovum’s Research Director and the former Deputy Chief Information Officer of Victoria, Australia.
“The rise of the Internet and global wireless communications is introducing notions of global freedom expectations that appear to transcend the sovereignty of governments to regulate what their citizens will and will not see, hear, and say,” he said.
What about Europe? Matt Poelmans, Director, Citizenlink, Ministry of the Interior, Government of the Netherlands said that he thinks the BlackBerry will not be banned or limited in his region. “Of course there is the recurring issue of the risks of free exchange of information in relation to state security and similar concerns. But privacy is firmly rooted in European society and government, even though the times are over in which the confidentiality of the mail was absolutely guaranteed.”
A suspicion and a judicial ruling are needed for the authorities to get access to voice and data traffic, Poelmans added. “Also the European Parliament is a strong supporter of privacy and fights against all kinds of infringements. For example, the United States often wants to get access to all kinds of data about airline passengers.”
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