Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Blackberry Turning Blackworry

CNN reported that Saudi Arabia will block starting August 5 Blackberry service in the Kingdom. The official line is that the action was resorted to "because the manufacturer of the devices couldn't meet the regulatory requirements" of the Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission. But reading through the lines, there's more to it than what meets the eye, specially since the action comes on the heel of the UAE decision to also restrict the Blackberry e-mail, instant messaging and Web browsing service. Here's the link to the CNN article.

This news item caught my eye as I suddenly remembered a few months back when I was locked out twice from my Facebook account due to the Blackberry service. What happened was that I tried to login on Facebook while on the go, using the native Facebook application in the Blackberry. There was a glitch somewhere, and I was not able to connect to my account. Moments later, I tried to login again, and I was told that my account was blocked and that I have to use a computer to unlock it. But it turned out that unlocking it is not an easy thing to do - particularly if you have hundreds of friends you barely knew.

The Facebook unlocking process requires correctly matching the name of the friend tagged in the photo shown. There are choices given to help you out, but you must guess correctly at least five out of the seven chances given. Tough, really, as I have hundreds of friends I don't know at all but were just added for the sake of the Mafia Wars game in Facebook

To cut the story short, I was able to get my account restored after literally sweating it out in dozens of attempts. It was really just a lucky run that what was shown in that final attempt were mostly people I do know, so I matched five correctly. And guess what Facebook told me as the reason for blocking the account while at the same time advising me to change the password? Someone in Canada is trying to access my account. I figured it was the Research In Motion Blackberry service trying to login to Facebook for me, since I already encountered the same problem earlier (which was resolved in a much easier way as my succeeding attempt was already on a computer.

The Pull/Push Email Service of Blackberry

RIM's Blackberry service is unique in that it pulls your emails from sites like Yahoo and Gmail and pushes these to your Blackberry device once you subscribe to the service. RIM retrieves the email in real time, say from Gmail, then sends this promptly to your Blackberry smartphone. Yeah, it's cool having your emails sent to you and having these easily handy anytime, anywhere. If you're a busy person that is always on-the-go, the BB service is truly heaven-sent. 

The downside, obviously, is that you'll be entrusting your personal information to RIM. Such guarded information like usernames and passwords have to be revealed; otherwise, you can't make much of  your Blackberry service subscription. And not just emails but also login info for Facebook, Twitter, IM clients or even Paypal. In essence, you'll be entrusting your sensitive information to this extra layer that promises  to make life a little easier and convenient for a busy guy like you.

While there has been no reported breach in RIM's handling of confidential information (at least not yet), it is just a matter of time before snoops and government agents try and succeed to get around the encryption and see what you are up to. Quite a terrifying thought, just thinking about it. 

But who is to say that government regulators in the US and Canada are not privy to the data being handled now by RIM? Reading between the lines of both the Saudi and UAE explanations for their drastic decisions, it seems both are trying to get into regulatory oversight game. With a broad, undefined power mixed with such lofty goals like national security and law enforcement in the hands of government agents, who knows what may happen.

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