India has finally joined the RIM compliance deadline bandwagon, posting a date of August 31st for the company to provide access to the requisite BlackBerry data within its borders, or risk a ban. The Indian government had earlier communicated this requirement to RIM earlier, demanding for some way for them to be able to intercept and monitor BlackBerry communications, most specifically, instant messages and corporate emails.
Though RIM has offered a concession of allowing partial access to BlackBerry Messenger services, the Indian government is not satisfied, and wants full access, including a way to intercept the wireless data. An official from the Department of Telecommunications commented on the issue: “It is binding upon them and the DoT, which is the nodal agency, will ensure that it is followed strictly in the interest of national security. The onus is on service providers to ensure that they have some sort of interception mechanism in place before the deadline ends.”
RIM’s current stance is as yet unknown, and while it has reportedly reached some sort of compromise with Saudi Arabia, it has also apparently denied any method of access that’s not technology or vendor neutral.
And so the battle rages on, and we can’t help but feel that the countries in question should invest in some code-breaking computers, and crack the code backstage, instead of causing a worldwide situation that might result in customers being wary of RIM’s service, something rather unfair to a company that prided itself on secure communications.