Government Vs. Telecoms: Where Does The Consumer Fit In?

In essence, what the United Arab Emirates and other countries are asking for are the keys to Canadian-based Research In Motion's databases. They want to be able to monitor, quickly and without the hindrance of having to decrypt information, potential national security threats. RIM faces a real tough question: Whose side does it take? Does it stick with the security it promised its customers? Or does it give the government what it wants, because not doing so could significantly hurt its business?

Cindy Cohn, the legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says things in the BlackBerry case are pretty clear. "They shouldn't blink. They should be saying no [to the UAE]. They should look out for the interest of their customers," she says. "Sometimes you just have to do the right thing." And in the long term, she adds, this is in the best interest of RIM, anyway. If it caves and gives a country like UAE access to its customers' data, companies that use RIM's enterprise software to do serious business would most likely turn to another solution.