Some countries have expressed reservations about the BlackBerry's strong encryption and the fact that data is routed through Research In Motion's servers, which are outside the legal jurisdictions of those countries. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrainwere reported to consider the BlackBerry as a "security threat" for this reason, with the former having earlier been reported as trying to get users to install an "update" on their BlackBerry devices, ostensibly for performance enhancement, but which turned out to be spyware that allowed call and email monitoring.
On August 1, 2010 Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) of The United Arab Emirates officially announced the suspension of BlackBerry Messenger, Blackberry Email, and Blackberry Web browsing services in the country as of October 11, 2010. This measure was taken due to failed attempts to bring the service and have it hosted locally as per the UAE Telecommunication regulations.
On October 8, 2010 the TRA officially announced that the BlackBerry services e.g. BBM E-mail web will continue to work as regular.
Other countries threatening to ban the use of the BlackBerry Messenger include Algeria, Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Indian authorities have asked Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian manufacturer of BlackBerry to provide them some means to access the encrypted data for calls to, from or within India, following concerns that it could be used by terrorist and rebel groups to carry out proxy war attacks on India. In the November, 2008 Mumbai attacks, terrorists used mobile and satellite phone technologies after which security agencies and Government of India have become more strict and alert towards communication within the country. BlackBerry has indicated willingness to set up a server in India by October, 2010 and giving the country limited access to its highly effective encryption technology.
Saudi Arabia has also threatened to ban the service, but it was reported close to reaching an agreement with RIM to set up a server for the service inside the Kingdom.
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