Blackberry CEO John Chen has written a blog post criticizing Apple’s strong stance on the privacy of customer data, suggesting that BlackBerry’s own privacy commitment “does not extend to criminals.” Although he does not name Apple directly, Chen links to an arsTechnica piece in which a NY federal judge expressed displeasure at Apple’s position in a case involving an iPhone belonging to a suspected drug dealer.
For years, government officials have pleaded to the technology industry for help yet have been met with disdain. In fact, one of the world’s most powerful tech companies recently refused a lawful access request in an investigation of a known drug dealer because doing so would “substantially tarnish the brand” of the company. We are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good.
Apple uses end-to-end encryption for both iMessages and FaceTime, making it impossible for the company to decrypt these communications, and also introduced strong encryption of iOS devices in iOS 8, again leaving the company unable to access locked devices.
Opposition to Apple’s approach has included the United States Attorney General, the FBI, the DOJ and other law-enforcement agencies – with the Homeland Security Committee and CIA joining in following the Paris attacks.
Chen seems unaware of both the irony of his stance – as head of a company built on secure communications – and the potential damage to the company’s reputation by implicitly suggesting that its own devices can have their privacy compromised. As I argued in a recent opinion piece, if you build in a hole designed to be used by law enforcement agencies, it’s only a matter of time before criminals gain access.
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Fuck this dude. “For the greater good” is how it starts. Just look at the latest Superman trailer. He fucks batman up for the greater good. He still hurt the poor guy
So does that means blackberry is actually selling their customer’s private to government for ‘greater good’?
Well, thank you blackberry. Thanks for telling me which phone I shouldn’t buy.
The funny thing is that Blackberry is leaving India because they were unwilling to provide the government a backdoor into their systems. So this line of attack is really puzzling.
I think you are out of date, Saudi, UAE, India and more all said BB should hand over keys years ago or get out. BB handed over the keys with no protest. Supposedly Russia, China, Bahrain and more all have access to their citizens phones. That was years ago…
Security at BB always was a pile of crap. They always had a back door, they were not shy in sharing it as soon as they were asked. Chen is reminding everyone here of their policy.
Exactly, for a company built on the protection of their customer’s data, good luck peddling your obsolete gadgets
It’s called “sharing”.
“Chen seems unaware of both the irony of his stance – as head of a company built on secure communications ”
Not an irony to him – in his world, your communications are secure within an establishment framework supported by Blackberry. Handing your stuff over to duly constituted authorities isn’t a security breach to him and his ilk.
That’s the nub of the debate – it’s between those who believe the authorities should have permission and be trusted because they’re the authorities; and those, who don’t trust them because they’ve shown they can’t be trusted
They call it “the greater good”. The guy who wrote the constitution called it the “overbearing majority”.
Does anyone really believe Apple’s ‘public stance’ equates to it’s actual stance?
James B. Comey to Tim Cook “All those Apple products Uncle Sam bought in the past ….., would you really, really want to risk losing that revenue? We both know it’s in **both** our interests for you to continue to publicly take the stance you do.”
I believe Apple has had to convince China that it has no back door. If Apple were able to give personal data to the US government the Chinese government would not let them do business there because they would effectively view Apple as a spy. Apple’s business in China is far bigger than their business with the US government.
Apple’s neutral stance makes sense financially since it allows them to operate freely around the world.
I cannot believe he came out and said that 😔SMH! He all but admitted that the all and powerful Blackberry who once also stated that they could not obtain personal data on an individual’s personal device until some governments put up the stop sign unless they gave them access, actually has a backdoor loophole that if in fact the authorities or whoever deems that someone is a person of interest and if they can get a warrant stating that they are being investigated for whatever that they would them access to their device. Blackberry 😔 SMH! Every step they take forward to recovering from their downward spiral, they always seem to do a giant long jump backwards by doing something stupid like this.
Didn’t Blackberry hand out the keys to their Messaging system to a few Governments that requested, Forced them to a few years back? So clearly BlackBerry has a backdoor and has been using it.
Anything to get attention… Remind me what’s Blackberry again?
“government officials”
Exactly who are these people and why are they entitled to anything?
If tech companies have a back door, they then have to decide who to give access.
This would put companies in a difficult position. Since they operate internationally and have data centers around the world, how could they let one government have access but not another? The CIA and FBI insist they should be given what they demand, but what if Russian security agencies or some other government makes a similar request? Who decides who is a criminal? In some lands people are viewed as criminals just because they exercise what other lands consider to be a human right.
It’s best if no government gets anything. That way the tech companies are neutral. Besides, if criminals want to ensure encrypted communication they have many easy ways to do so, it is unstoppable.
We probably need some entirely new commons sector entity to decide reasonable restrictions on privacy in international matters like operating systems. Put someone from each of 20 reputable NGOs on a board, like Amnesty International gets 4 seats, MSF gets 3, Greenpeace 2 and a raft of little guys get 1 each. Oh and give a seat to each major religion too and subordinate the whole thing to the Parliament of world Religions, Occupy and Anonymous formally. If that board can agree with only one dissenter to allow access, it goes ahead. Else forget it. Seriously, governments? Not the entities you want deciding.
Security at Blackberry (formerly RIM) has always been a veneer, one they’ve been able to keep the media from peeking behind. They’ve always had backdoor access to your data – along with whomever else they extend the privilege. The company has a long history of creating special access and bending policy to fit with the climate within any particular market. It’s too bad for them that this chameleon-like behavior didn’t help them where it counts the most, mind-share and sales. Frankly, this company has reaped what it deserves, sitting at the bottom of the market and teetering on the brink of irrelevance, eventually bankruptcy.
I’m basically agreeing. They used their nominal base of operations in Canada to pretend they were NSA-immune or at least more secure. They aren’t. If anything less so due to their centralized messaging architecture. I am not seeing much of a future in North American corporations providing any secure OS.
I am an apple certified support & deployment specialist. I use BB as both my work and my private phones. I am doing so, because I am a busy person and I don’t appreciate having to stare at the display of a phone simply because I want to make a note / finish an email. Also, the pocket compatibility is for me a significant issue. Anyway – F you BB. You have just lost one of your last hundred users. I am now in market for the Typo 2 case. Thank you for making my life easier (and my next pickpocket incident potentially much more expensive).
And now we know why BlackBerry is in the shitter!
F*ck you, Chen – Take your shitty shell of a once great company and just die in a fire! You shill for the Feds
Move along – Nothing to see here!
The Priv, not so priv then…
This really pisses me off. Never ever will I buy a blackberry product ever again.
No sour grapes here, LOL. The most ironic thing I’ve seen on the ‘net in awhile, and that is saying something. B-Berry built it’s entire reputation on (supposedly) secure communications, while sending them all though it’s single point of failure in Waterloo.
No chance this guy has any ill will toward the company that single handedly eclipsed his entire product portfolio… LOL!
John Chen is so out of touch and its no wonder Crackberry is going to become extinct soon. So you give your one anectdotal example, “Well this one time there was this drug dealer…blah…blah…blah.” Chen do us all a favor and go pound sand. I’m tired of hearing this arguement of give up your privacy so we can be safer. I’m sorry who is going to be safer in all this? Mr. Chen how about this, I will give up my privacy as long as you do as well. Give me access to all your personal information and allow me to track you. Cause you know I want to keep this country safe from whackjobs that want to take away the 4th amendment.
I hope they change the name of their BB Priv, to the BB Hacked
I fully agree.
Blackberry already gave the encryption keys to their “secure” system on demand – to some of the most corrupt and/or totalitarian governments… india, UAE, Saudi Arabia and apparently Russia.
It’s more than iron, it’s complete hypocrisy… Chen may want to help law enforcement, but wholesale exposure of all innocent citizens exposed to totalitarian government? Blackberry was crap after this happened and its no coincidence they were shopping for a buyer in China and still are, as if being owned by China does anything for the common good, but I suppose they prob already have BB encryption keys….
Do you have a good source reporting that “Blackberry already gave the encryption keys to their “secure” system on demand – to some of the most corrupt and/or totalitarian governments… india, UAE, Saudi Arabia and apparently Russia”? I’d like to see that. And repost it. You are correct about BB shopping for a Chinese buyer, in part to maintain their popularity with users who don’t want to be spied on by the US and US-government-allied corps like Halliburton.
Keep in mind that India just made homosexuality illegal as it is in most Arab countries. And pot is a death sentence in parts of Asia. Who is defined as a “criminal” is not a uniform moral definition, and it’s very likely that selective enforcement will be applied for political reasons to the most vulnerable persons.
Fuck Blackberry! This guy is just pissed off that his piece of crap phones don’t sell, and that the iPhone practically put them out of business. I prefer privacy. He’s also basically saying that Blackberry would roll right over and let the government get to their customers’ data.
His comment let us know 2 things:
1. Don’t buy a Blackberry bc they’re crap devices
2. Don’t buy Blackberry bc they’ll share your private messages to whoever ask…
Perhaps BlackBerry’s CEO will explain to his many international users exactly how a tool created for the US government to break into one iPhone, will not be also used by every other government on Earth, and anyone who gets ahold of it via connections in any government on Earth, to break into every iPhone.
It was nice of him to tell us that he will hand over BlackBerry-breaking tools to any government that asks, however. Just realize that who is considered to be a “criminal” i.e. gays in Iran, pot smokers in Asia, religious dissidents in China, may include a vast number of people you would not like to see spied on, harassed, and maybe executed.
I predict a thriving business in custom SELinux and Android ROMs that the manufacturer of the phone has no access to, and can’t break into in this fashion.
And I predict the decline of North American corporate OS in sensitive applications like phones and routers. Oh. Wait. Router OS is already open source.