 "Govt can now track your BBM and other BlackBerry services in real-time")
The long standing tussle between the nation’s law enforcement agencies and BlackBerry over the topic of the lawful interception of the latter’s devices has reportedly come to an end.
Almost there! (Image credit: Getty Images)
The Economic Times reports that agencies in the country will soon be able to track e-mails and e-mail attachments over BlackBerry devices in real-time, ascertain if chats sent over BBM have been ‘delivered’ or ‘read’, and also intercept web-browsing facilities on these devices. The business daily also managed to lay their hands on an internal note of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), which says that leaving aside “minor points for improvement of viewers”, the system for lawful interception is ready for use.
Interestingly though, the report shares that the government seems to have let go off its demand to access the company’s corporate e-mail service through the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. “The law enforcement agencies, it seems are content simply with the identity of the corporates using the service,” the report notes.
A BlackBerry spokesperson was quoted as saying, “T_he lawful access capability now available to BlackBerry’s carrier partners meets the standard required by the Government of India for all consumer messaging services offered in the Indian marketplace. We also wish to underscore, once again, that this enablement of lawful access does not extend to BlackBerry Enterprise Server.”_
According to the note, nine of the ten telecom service providers offering BlackBerry services were in the process of putting these interception solutions in place. As it stands now, the government is to sign agreement with the company and subsequently get the company’s monitoring setup in Mumbai.
Almost all the major telcos in the country, including Bharti Airtel and Tata, had agreed to put in place systems to legally intercept BlackBerry services. They had been directed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to put these systems in place by December 31, 2012. After some initial resistance all companies complied with the directive and now the telcos have installed the software for providing real-time interception of all facilities to the security agencies.
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