Global articles on espionage, spying, bugs, and other interesting topics.

BlackBerry Eavesdropping

The Indian government says it’s reached an agreement that will allow government agencies in that Asian nation to eavesdrop on traffic emanating from the BlackBerry Messenger Service. It’s a temporary solution, but India’s government says a permanent deal should be in place by Jan. 31, 2011.

India first threatened to shutter the service a few months ago. So BlackBerry’s parent company, Research In Motion, found itself in quite a pickle – either risk losing access to a market of more than 1 billion people, or agree to subvert its own customers’ privacy. Obviously, the threat of taking a big financial hit won out.

India and several other nations in Asia and the Middle East have expressed concern that terrorists can use texting services like BBM to carry out their activities, and without government monitoring, they might be able to do so unchecked. The United Arab Emirates came to a similar agreement with RIM a couple of weeks ago, although BBM wasn’t specifically mentioned.