KARACHI ( MEDIA REPORT )
Canadian smartphone and secure communications company BlackBerry, on Monday, clearly indicated its intention to pull out of Pakistan over Islamabad’s demand of access to users’ private data.
BlackBerry’s website at first announced that the company would no longer operate in Pakistan after November 30 – the government’s deadline to shut down BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) in the country – but shortly withheld its decision till the end of 2015 after the Pakistani government extended the deadline by a month. The Express Tribune reported.
In July, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) issued a notification to the country’s mobile phone operators with a directive that servers of BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) would no longer be allowed to operate in the country starting December for security reasons. The government, which has been fighting terrorism, says terrorists and criminals use these secure services, hindering the job of security agencies.
The directive came after BlackBerry refused to comply with the government’s demand for a ‘wholesale’ access to BES servers, which encrypt users’ private information, such as emails and instant messages.
As the deadline approached, the company announced the exit, saying it would not compromise on its customers’ privacy.
The Pakistani government wanted the ability to monitor all BES traffic in the country, including every BES e-mail and BES BBM message, read a statement on the company website.
“We don’t support ‘back doors’ granting open access to our customers’ information and have never done this anywhere in the world,” the statement said, quoting Marty Beard, Chief Operating Officer at BlackBerry.
The company further said it was willing to help law enforcement agencies investigate criminal activity. However, Pakistan was essentially demanding unfettered access to all of their BES customers’ information.
“The privacy of our customers is of paramount importance to BlackBerry, and we will not compromise that principle,” it said. “While we recognise the need to cooperate with lawful government investigative requests of criminal activity, we have never permitted wholesale access to our BES servers.”
Although the Pakistani government’s directive was aimed only at their BES servers, the company said it had decided to exit the market altogether. “Pakistan’s demand for open access to monitor a significant swath of our customers’ communication within its borders left us no choice but to exit the country.”
The development could dent the future plans of Ministry of IT and Telecom’s, which announced only last week that the government would invite major e-commerce players, the likes of Amazon, eBay and PayPal to launch operation in Pakistan.
However, the PTA acted swiftly and did some damage control and notified BlackBerry about the one-month extension in the deadline.
PTA Chairman Ismail Shah said they need more to negotiate with all stakeholders including telecom operators, interior ministry, IT ministry and security agencies before they could resolve the issue or reach a final decision. He did not confirm whether the government would soften its stance regarding access to BES servers, which can stop the company from exiting the exiting the market.
Though BlackBerry has a very small presence – about 4,000 to 5,000 users – in the country, rights activists took to twitter and expressed their thoughts on how the development could threaten other companies who have similar commitment towards their customers’ data.
Digital rights activist and Director of Bolo Bhi, Farieha Aziz tweeted that companies that care about privacy of data and protection of speech would be wary of their presence in Pakistan.
The Express Tribune,
Marty Beard wrote on block After November 30, BlackBerry will no longer operate in Pakistan. While we regret leaving this important market and our valued customers there, remaining in Pakistan would have meant forfeiting our commitment to protect our users’ privacy. That is a compromise we are not willing to make.
In July, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority notified the country’s mobile phone operators that BlackBerry’s BES servers would no longer be allowed to operate in the country starting in December “for security reasons.”
The truth is that the Pakistani government wanted the ability to monitor all BlackBerry Enterprise Service traffic in the country, including every BES e-mail and BES BBM message. But BlackBerry will not comply with that sort of directive. As we have said many times, we do not support “back doors” granting open access to our customers’ information and have never done this anywhere in the world.
Pakistan’s demand was not a question of public safety; we are more than happy to assist law enforcement agencies in investigations of criminal activity. Rather, Pakistan was essentially demanding unfettered access to all of our BES customers’ information. The privacy of our customers is paramount to BlackBerry, and we will not compromise that principle.
What we said in July when rumors of Pakistan’s decision started to swirl remains true today: “BlackBerry provides the world’s most secure communications platform to government, military and enterprise customers. Protecting that security is paramount to our mission. While we recognize the need to cooperate with lawful government investigative requests of criminal activity, we have never permitted wholesale access to our BES servers.”
BlackBerry’s focus will remain on protecting corporate, government and military communications throughout the world, including in South Asia and the Middle East, wherever our technology operates. Although the Pakistani government’s directive was aimed only at our BES servers, we have decided to exit the market altogether, because Pakistan’s demand for open access to monitor a significant swath of our customers’ communications within its borders left us no choice but to exit the country entirely