There is a wave of governmental intrusion sweeping the globe in recent weeks. From India to Saudi Arabia to UAE and now Indonesia, several governments have targeted Research in Motion’s popular Blackberry devices. In each case those governments have demanded that RIM relay day traffic to its Blackberry customers through government controlled servers, presumably where data can be scanned, evaluated and recorded without the consent of the user and without any presumed suspicion of a crime having been committed.
To RIM’s credit they have repeated rejected such efforts to their own detriment. Saudi Arabia has order Blackberry service suspended within the next two days, followed by UAE in a matter of weeks, with India and Indonesia maneuvering to do the same in the very near future. Herein lies the true danger of oppressive government and the passion of the few to rule the many. When the state seeks to control its people under the guise of security we must be vary wary. We mustn’t be so foolish as to believe such actions cannot happen hear.
We know of the efforts our own government has engaged in to spy on its citizens using warrant-less wiretapping and so forth. While RIM’s fight against government intrusion in the developing world maybe less than altruistic, the battle is no less significant.
