Blackberry getting kicked out of countries?
Stories about Middle East conflict are nothing new. But they generally don’t involve the Blackberry. That’s what’s going on now, however, as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries are trying to limit or even block what a Blackberry can do. The Canadian company that makes Blackberry, Research in Motion or RIM is said to be in negotiations to keep their products online.
At issue is Blackberry’s encryption, which makes messages sent from it very hard to spy on. These countries want to be able to do that.
We explore the issue and what it might mean for people who use Blackberries in the United States. If you have a Blackberry are your messages any more secure than your friend who uses an Android or an iPhone or just uses a regular old cell phone to send messages?
We talk to Jonathan Zittrain about it. He’s the co-director and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, where he also teaches law and economics. We also talk to privacy and security researcher Chris Soghoian says think again about who can see our messages whether we go to Dubai or not.
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