UAE and Saudi Arabia to ban Blackberry functions

'Cos they're gooseberry fool phones lol

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10830485

Nah, after trying and failing to covertly install spyware onto 500,000 Blackberry handsets, UAE will be blocking emails, web access and Blackberry Messenger, citing security concerns. Saudi will stick to blocking Blackberry Messenger to their 400,00 users, which is good of them.

I hope RIM don't cave in. It'll be interesting to see if they go through with it. Would there be any point? Surely a would be Blackberry loving terrorist could just have a phone sent from a different country on an outside network?

More importantly, does that mean that they CAN covertly install spyware on other handsets?

How do they block the phone's functions?

Shirley there must be a way round it.

My dad lives and works in Dubai and uses a Blackberry for work. He's been kindly told by his network operator that they are ending their service on the 11th of October.

strawberry floatin' joke. We only just bought his Blackberry for him last Christmas as well.

I would've thought that with Dubai being such a haven for huge businesses and rich businessmen and celebs, Blackberry would be untouchable.

Alvin Flummux wrote:I would've thought that with Dubai being such a haven for huge businesses and rich businessmen and celebs, Blackberry would be untouchable.

Well yeah, it's really popular out there but it almost seems as though the authorities feel their allowance on Western style freedom has gone too far and they want to rope some back in.

They need Westerners out there so they have to play a balancing act between enforcing Arabian traditions and Western freedoms.

Good.

Dual wrote:How do they block the phone's functions?

Shirley there must be a way round it.

There is, and don't call me Shirley.

Dblock wrote:Good.

Why good? Surely bad?

jamcc wrote:

Alvin Flummux wrote:I would've thought that with Dubai being such a haven for huge businesses and rich businessmen and celebs, Blackberry would be untouchable.

Well yeah, it's really popular out there but it almost seems as though the authorities feel their allowance on Western style freedom has gone too far and they want to rope some back in.

They need Westerners out there so they have to play a balancing act between enforcing Arabian traditions and Western freedoms.

I can't see how banning Blackberries has anything to do with 'Western freedoms'. If that was the UAE government's agenda then why aren't they enforcing tougher alcohol laws, decency laws, film censorship etc etc. Blackberries are used by the business community, which is the lifeblood of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, restricting Western freedoms by banning Blackberries would be completely illogical.

This is about what the UAE government says it's about - terrorism. Sure, it may be an archaic and clumsy way to deal with the problem, but you have to remember that Dubai is hugely vulnerable to terrorists. It's a multicultural, multi-religious, Westerner haven in the heart of the middle east, complete with night clubs, bars, rampant prostitution, Arab homosexuals and all the other things Islamists hate. The anti-terrorist forces there have to be very careful.

I'm not saying I totally agree with the decision to ban Blackberries, but to try and pass it off as "Arabs hating western freedoms" is pretty silly.

Surfer_Pretty_Rosa wrote:

jamcc wrote:

Alvin Flummux wrote:I would've thought that with Dubai being such a haven for huge businesses and rich businessmen and celebs, Blackberry would be untouchable.

Well yeah, it's really popular out there but it almost seems as though the authorities feel their allowance on Western style freedom has gone too far and they want to rope some back in.

They need Westerners out there so they have to play a balancing act between enforcing Arabian traditions and Western freedoms.

I can't see how banning Blackberries has anything to do with 'Western freedoms'. If that was the UAE government's agenda then why aren't they enforcing tougher alcohol laws, decency laws, film censorship etc etc. Blackberries are used by the business community, which is the lifeblood of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, restricting Western freedoms by banning Blackberries would be completely illogical.

This is about what the UAE government says it's about - terrorism. Sure, it may be an archaic and clumsy way to deal with the problem, but you have to remember that Dubai is hugely vulnerable to terrorists. It's a multicultural, multi-religious, Westerner haven in the heart of the middle east, complete with night clubs, bars, rampant prostitution, Arab homosexuals and all the other things Islamists hate. The anti-terrorist forces there have to be very careful.

I'm not saying I totally agree with the decision to ban Blackberries, but to try and pass it off as "Arabs hating western freedoms" is pretty silly.

Agreed. A lot of funding for terrorism comes from richer arab nations and I'd rather see them plugging security holes than bend over for big corporations. They gave RIM the chance to set up a proxy and they refused, so blame RIM, not the nation with genuine national, hell, international security concerns.

mokeyjoe wrote:

Surfer_Pretty_Rosa wrote:

jamcc wrote:

Alvin Flummux wrote:I would've thought that with Dubai being such a haven for huge businesses and rich businessmen and celebs, Blackberry would be untouchable.

Well yeah, it's really popular out there but it almost seems as though the authorities feel their allowance on Western style freedom has gone too far and they want to rope some back in.

They need Westerners out there so they have to play a balancing act between enforcing Arabian traditions and Western freedoms.

I can't see how banning Blackberries has anything to do with 'Western freedoms'. If that was the UAE government's agenda then why aren't they enforcing tougher alcohol laws, decency laws, film censorship etc etc. Blackberries are used by the business community, which is the lifeblood of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, restricting Western freedoms by banning Blackberries would be completely illogical.

This is about what the UAE government says it's about - terrorism. Sure, it may be an archaic and clumsy way to deal with the problem, but you have to remember that Dubai is hugely vulnerable to terrorists. It's a multicultural, multi-religious, Westerner haven in the heart of the middle east, complete with night clubs, bars, rampant prostitution, Arab homosexuals and all the other things Islamists hate. The anti-terrorist forces there have to be very careful.

I'm not saying I totally agree with the decision to ban Blackberries, but to try and pass it off as "Arabs hating western freedoms" is pretty silly.

Agreed. A lot of funding for terrorism comes from richer arab nations and I'd rather see them plugging security holes than bend over for big corporations. They gave RIM the chance to set up a proxy and they refused, so blame RIM, not the nation with genuine national, hell, international security concerns.

Whats's the quote? 'Those that favour security over freedom deserve neither'. What these Gulf states are saying is that they reserve the right to monitor any and all communications without needing a warrant, and any company that utilises an encryption service must cease to do so. Contrast that to how the regulatory bodies in the UK and US, where encryption keys can only be obtained via a warrant or subpoena, and you can see why it isn't so outrageous for RIM to refuse to budge.

EDIT: As is my understanding, anyway. The legal speak in the document I skimmed wasn't exactly written in plain English..