US, India, UAE and Saudi Arabia connect on Blackberry row
05 Aug 2010
Washington: With the row over BlackBerry services spiralling in countries around the globe, with India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia hauling service provider and manufacturer Research in Motion over the coals for its refusal to give them access to client data, US authorities have said they are in touch with these countries over their concerns with regard to the Blackberry's accessibility.
"There are issues attached to freedom of information, the flow of information, the use of technology. We are in touch with these governments," State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told reporters at his daily news briefing.
"We're going to try to understand what their concerns are, the nature of the ongoing negotiations that they have with this particular company.
"And then you've touched on that there are number of countries that are in the midst of these negotiations and we'll see what the implications are," Crowley said in response to a question.
Crowley's comments come even as Indian security agencies are threatening to cut off Blackberry services over its adamant refusal to provide access to all data that passes over its servers. Indonesia now joins a growing list of countries that are threatening to shut down BlackBerry services over its inability to meet local security and regulatory requirements.
The UAE will ban some of the Blackberry services from 1 October.
