No ban on BlackBerry, RIM allows govt access

Aug 17, 2010 - Age Correspondent |

New Delhi

BlackBerry will not face a ban in India, with its makers — Canada’s Research In Motion (RIM) — agreeing to provide Indian security agencies “manual” access to its widely-used BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service from September 1. The Union home ministry has sought “direct” access to BBM for the security agencies, and RIM is

working out the technical modalities and is likely to make it available by the end of the year. “Manual” access means that the agencies will have to ask service providers to enable interception on a case-by-case basis, but once “direct” access is enabled, the agencies will be able to intercept BBM on their own.
However, BlackBerry Entreprise Services continues to face the threat of a ban till RIM agrees to allow the security agencies legal access to the special service. The Centre had set August 31 as the deadline for RIM to provide legal access to both these services or face a ban in view of fears by law enforcement agencies that they could be used by terrorist and insurgent outfits.

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