The UAE’s Telecommunications Regulation Authority has announced the suspension of certain Blackberry services in effect from October 11, 2010. As an expatriate born and raised in this country, I’m sad that this situation has arisen – but there are deeper motives at play.
From a customer perspective, this ban is highly inconvenient. From a governance perspective, it makes sense.
The Unspoken
The government’s concern is security. Their presentation of this issue could have been better but their core concern is valid. That is, their unspoken fear of a scenario in which a group of terrorists use a secure foreign network to launch attacks. Whether the probability of this is high or not, I cannot judge – I’m sure the UAE government, which has done a great job of securing us so far, can decide for me.
From the customer’s perspective, this is not just an inconvenience, it is an affront to freedom of speech… oh wait, there isn’t any! Sure, there is a theoretical possibility that monitoring of emails, phone calls and messages can be abused, but this is a question of trust between the customer and the government. Does the customer trust the government to not abuse its power? Does the government trust customers to not misuse their freedom? What “contract” do the two parties have?
Wait a minute, there’s a third player. RIM, a foreign organization! How can I entrust my data to RIM but not the UAE government? Do I have greater trust in the laws of Canada, a country that I have never been to? Or does RIM provide a contract that the UAE government doesn’t?
The Solution
The logical solution here is:
- for the UAE Government to provide assurance that the customer’s privacy will be safe-guarded. Let them become our guardians and not someone we must fear.
- for the UAE Government to reach an understanding with RIM as to what the data will be used for. There is clear rationale for monitoring and RIM cannot ignore it.
There is also a greater issue of privacy, freedom and rights, which is really another topic. But is it really surprising that a minority wishes to police its own country by all means possible? The few implicitly fear the many, unless they have power over the latter. And no one likes to live in fear in their own country.