Searched Linkedin for people with titles containing "Public Safety Operations" and who work, or have worked, at Blackberry.<p>One of them is now the "Manager of Law Enforcement Operations" at Kik. She describes her job as involving creating and fostering "positive working relationships with law enforcement and government agencies worldwide," and prides herself on "successfully manag[ing] large-scale projects from start to finish while hitting targets". <i>Shudders.</i><p>It's amusing that the state has coerced private companies into running its apparatus. Has anybody studied the implicit "tax rate" across economies including such costs of regulation, compliance and state security?
I really don't understand how RIM manages to consistently misunderstand their target market so badly.<p>Not that they have many (or any) fans left, but back when they were the bees knees, they were used by and often mandatory company phones for government departments and fortune 500 companies exactly because they were considered the apex of mobile security.<p>I know it's been a while since they were the apex of anything but jesus guys, at least pretend to try or something.
Man, this pisses me off so much I'm...I'm...I'm never going to buy a Blackberry! After Chen's comments on the San Bernadino case, I'm not surprised much. I should be outraged or something, but what am I going to do? Petition my government? BB is Canadian, I'm U. S. Not buy a phone I never stood a chance of even considering? Recommend to my boss that she not buy BBs for the team, like she was never going to do? Not write software for BB, just like I've been doing for, like, ever?
So Blackberry supposedly sells "secure devices" and "secure messaging" and other services, only to brag behind customers' backs about how they "kicked ass" in betraying their customers' trust and handing their data over to the police? Guilty or not, that's ultimately for a judge to decide, not the police, or Blackberry. The point is, it shouldn't be Blackberry's job to betray its customers like this, certainly not while selling them "high security".<p>From my point of view, good riddance Blackberry. You will not be missed.
This, unfortunately, is inevitable. Any communication provider that controls the keys (i.e. no client-side key management) will eventually be compelled, coerced, or bullied into sharing some details of the users' communications.
<i>Collaborators</i> undermining the rule of law and due process.<p>I doubt history will look kindly on these practices, and the story makes me even more eager to see RIM and its products in the dust bin.
To some extent this is a reflection on the company's Canadian culture. Canadians tend, to the extent that can ever be generalized about a nation of people, to be pro-government and assume that the government may not be perfect but has the best interests of its citizens at heart. For example, Americans refer to their government decisions as 'they decided', but Canadians say 'we decided'.<p>Given this, I'm not surprised BB thinks they're doing the right thing by helping governments spy on their people.<p>Source: I'm a Canadian who has lived in the US for 8 years. I was quite patriotic in my youth, so I've spent some time reflecting on the differences between Canada and the US.
The real issue that jumps out at me is that BB is assisting companies in side-stepping the MLAT (Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty) which gives the Canadian government the legal authority to obtain court orders on behalf of countries that are parties to mutual legal assistance agreements.<p>As the article notes "U.S. law prohibits the likes of Apple, Facebook, and Google from intercepting communications on behalf of foreign agencies', in Canada it is not prohibited but should include MLAT [0] in the workflow, which would slow the process down and ensure some eyes on the request that don't have a commercial interest at stake.<p>BB is receiving these request from foreign operators directly.<p>For BB to seemingly satisfy these requests with such, well, <i>gusto</i> is disturbing to me, both as a Canadian as as someone who does still carry a work-issued BB (a Z30, it's a great mobile device!).<p>[0] <a href="http://justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/emla-eej/mlatocan-ejaucan.html" rel="nofollow">http://justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/emla-eej/mlatocan-ejaucan.htm...</a>
This article makes me wonder about the interview[1] where Lazaridis walked out after being asked about BlackBerry security. Perhaps he was feeling defensive about these practices?<p>[1]: <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q6iGe7vuGeQ" rel="nofollow">http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q6iGe7vuGeQ</a>
I received a couple free BB Playbooks. Still a good cardio gym tablet, because I don't care if it gets smashed or stolen. Battery life is great, I only need to charge it every 3 days or so. Alas, QNX...<p>Used to be annoyed that it needed to phone home every single time I connected by Wi-Fi. There is also a security vulnerability on port 4455, can't remember what it is called though.<p>The guy who created Ghost Commander ( <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ghostsq.commander" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ghostsq.co...</a> ) ported it over to the Playbook. It is the only thing keeping that tablet usable.
Maybe, in the face of losing customers to Apple and Samsung (et al), they are trying to cut their own little niche in the mobile market among people who has nothing to hide and likes it when they help the police 'kick ass'.
I don't understand how blackberry has access to intercept anything. Are all phones constantly phoning home checking if i_belong_to_a_bad_guy == True maybe at the time of a software update they base it on one of the unique identifiers. Ultimately though, who cares this day and age the only people I know using blackberries are people with big hands who like to type fast.
Man... I literally bought my PRIV just last week due to verified boot, hardware encryption and now i get this?<p>Selling my almost brand new PRIV. 450$. PM
Their best hope is to get their assets acquired by a big defense contractor like MOT, BAE, etc, to supply the niche of north american public sector mobile devices.<p>Like a Canadian hockey team Blackberry insists they invented the game, but every time they get to the playoffs they choke because they're just so overwhelmed at being invited.<p>Any interesting engineering they might have done in the past is dwarfed by their farcical inability to turn it into something people actually wanted.<p>It's just all so....canadian.