RIM negotiates with India

RIM claims it is ‘false and technologically infeasible’ that they are allowing the Indian government access to data transmitting through the Blackberry Enterprise Server.

However, RIM and the Indian authorities appear to have reached a deadlock; RIM wants two years to work on a solution with regards to the interception of emails, whilst the Department of Telecommunications and India’s interior ministry apparently have stuck to their preferred deadline of 31 January 2011.

The Economic Times reported a meeting where the demands from both sides were made. RIM promised to give access to its data within 24 months. Early in January RIM denied any pressure from the Indian authorities, stating they had not and would not be handing over data, and the deadline had been removed.

RIM has had an on going battle with regards to the privacy of its Blackberry customers for a large part of 2010. Skype may well be the next area to be attacked by authorities in emerging and non-western nations, in what is claimed to be a crack down on terrorism.

China has recently set its sights on blocking Skype, whilst the Indian government has also expressed a desire for information from Skype and Google.

In the meantime, Blackberry customers in India can only sit and wait to see if the end of January will see a sudden end to their Blackberry services – or whether RIM really have won this round.