RIM vs. India is back in the news again. This time it’s Robert Crow, vice president of industry and government relations for Research in Motion doing the talking. Here’s what he said:
According to Robert Crow, vice president of industry and government relations for Research in Motion, the country’s Home Ministry, which is responsible for domestic security, has told the firm that it will require the ability to intercept communication data sent via the email capabilities of the handset.
This has raised serious concerns for the user’s privacy, a feature that is of central importance to the traditional business orientated user of the RIM phone, with the company saying it prides itself on high security.
According to Crow these demands could potentially open up the doors to further problems, such as whether the government tracking of ambassadorial conversations or even transfer of financial files would be off limits.
“You connect those dots and you’re saying, ‘Holy smokes,’ ” said Crow.
“This claim is made in an environment where we don’t really have any privacy – or data-protection laws – and where we have a pretty poor administrative record of keeping similar things like wiretaps secret.”
Although there has been no comment from the Indian authorities on the matter so far, it is widely thought that such measures would be demanded under the pretence of maintaining the country’s ability to monitor terrorist activity.
Charming. Ignoring the fact that RIM has said over and over again that they can’t do this even if they wanted to, this is just another example of India just not getting it. They should really give up on this. In the meantime, I’ll say it one more time. RIM should just say “screw India” if they keep acting like that. It truly isn’t worth it.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
This entry was posted on March 14, 2011 at 7:15 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags India, RIM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
RIM Balks At Indian Demands…. Shock, Not….
RIM vs. India is back in the news again. This time it’s Robert Crow, vice president of industry and government relations for Research in Motion doing the talking. Here’s what he said:
According to Robert Crow, vice president of industry and government relations for Research in Motion, the country’s Home Ministry, which is responsible for domestic security, has told the firm that it will require the ability to intercept communication data sent via the email capabilities of the handset.
This has raised serious concerns for the user’s privacy, a feature that is of central importance to the traditional business orientated user of the RIM phone, with the company saying it prides itself on high security.
According to Crow these demands could potentially open up the doors to further problems, such as whether the government tracking of ambassadorial conversations or even transfer of financial files would be off limits.
“You connect those dots and you’re saying, ‘Holy smokes,’ ” said Crow.
“This claim is made in an environment where we don’t really have any privacy – or data-protection laws – and where we have a pretty poor administrative record of keeping similar things like wiretaps secret.”
Although there has been no comment from the Indian authorities on the matter so far, it is widely thought that such measures would be demanded under the pretence of maintaining the country’s ability to monitor terrorist activity.
Share this:
Like this:
Related
This entry was posted on March 14, 2011 at 7:15 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags India, RIM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.