BlackBerry may exit Pakistan to protect users’ privacy

By Park Sae-jin Posted : December 1, 2015, 10:52 Updated : December 1, 2015, 10:52

Priv, the latest BlackBerry smartphone using Android platform [Courtesy of BlackBerry]



BlackBerry, a smartphone manufacturer may no longer operate in Pakistan, the company’s COO Marty Beard said on BlackBerry’s official blog, Monday.

According to the blog, on July, Pakistani telecommunication authority notified the country’s mobile phone operators that BlackBerry’s server will no longer be allowed to operate in the country from December for security reasons.

Beard claims the Pakistani government wanted an ability to monitor all BlackBerry Enterprise Service’s traffic in the country. In the traffic included are BlackBerry emails and messages.

“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.” He wrote.

The COO also claimed that Pakistani government’s demand was not a question of public safety.

Since the announcement, the Pakistani government had extended its shutdown order from November 30 to December 30. It is very likely that BlackBerry will pull out of Pakistan if the government keeps its shutdown order on BlackBerry services.

아주경제 박세진 기자 = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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