RIM Says It Cannot Comply With Governments Requests for Consumers Data

While we were at the simultaneous Torch 9800 announcement event in London, we were given a note concerning RIMs position on consumer privacy. This has quickly become a focal point for RIM as consumer privacy concerns have spurred over the recent troubles with the UAE, Indian, Chinese, and Russian governments.

"RIM operates in over 175 countries today and provides a security architecture that is widely accepted by security conscious customers and governments around the world. RIM respects both the regulatory requirements of government and the security and privacy needs of corporations and consumers. RIM does not disclose confidential regulatory discussions that take place with any government however RIM assures its customers that it is committed to continue delivering highly secure and innovative products that satisfy the needs of both customers and governments."

An additional statement was given today regarding why RIM could not comply with governments requests for consumers data. RIM said the BlackBerry network was set up so that "no one, including RIM, could access'' customer data, which is encrypted from the time it leaves the device. It added RIM would "simply be unable to accommodate any request'' for a key to decrypt the data, since the company doesn't have the key


Apparently, the BlackBerry network is designed "to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances,'' RIM's statement said. 

via WSJ