Threats To User Privacy Forces BlackBerry Out Of Pakistan

BlackBerry on Monday affirmed it would pull out of Pakistan as the country has reportedly asked it to provide 'unfettered' access to its customers' communications.

According to CNET, BlackBerry CEO Marty Beard said that Pakistan in July had warned the Canadian company that its BlackBerry Enterprise Servers cannot operate in the country due to security concerns, which was aimed at getting access to user communications. Choosing to not comply, the company decided to exit Pakistan after December 30.

"BlackBerry will not comply with that sort of directive. As we have said many times, we do not support 'back doors' granting open access to our customers' information and have never done this anywhere in the world," Beard said in a blog post.

"Pakistan's demand was not a question of public safety; we are more than happy to assist law enforcement agencies in investigations of criminal activity. Rather, Pakistan was essentially demanding unfettered access to all of our BES customers' information. The privacy of our customers is paramount to BlackBerry, and we will not compromise that principle."

The extent of government surveillance on individuals and entities became clear after exposes by whistleblowers including Edward Snowden. In the recent past, tech companies have increasingly resisted government efforts citing user privacy, while many also publicize annual number of requests for information from governments.