Rameez Nooruddin

notes, sidenotes, footnotes and what-nots.

Why target Blackberry?

Blackberry is facing some serious heat from Saudi Arabia, UAE and India regarding the suveillance of encrypted data traffic of its users within these countries. Blackberry has already made a deal with Saudi Arabia complying with the Arab nation's request. It will most likely follow suit with UAE and India.

I'm curious about why Blackberry was specifically targetted? Encrypted communication is equally possible on other competing smartphone platforms like iPhone and Android as well.

For example, iCrypt is an iPhone app that can be used to send encrypted emails. Whisper Systems makes two related products for Android ― RedPhone, which can be used to make encrypted calls through VoIP, and TextSecure, which can be used to send encrypted text messages. Both of these are available in the app stores of their respective platforms. They are cheap too. I'm sure other alternatives also exist.

Heck, Blackberry users can still use CyphrTxt for encrypting emails.

What is the use of setting up this surveillance then?