Data row sees Blackberry exit Pakistan

During the summer Pakistan’s Telecommunications Authority told Blackberry the servers underpinning its messaging business would no longer be allowed to operate in the country, after the company refused to comply with a directive from the government that would have granted it access to all the traffic passing across its messaging servers, including every BES email and BES BBM message.

Beard highlighted that such a move would have been unprecedented for the company, which had never previously complied with any similar request anywhere in the world, and while the company recognised the need to cooperate with governments to help prevent criminal activity, wholesale access to the company’s servers have never been permitted.

In a blog post in November, Beard commented: “While we regret leaving this important market and our valued customers there, remaining in Pakistan would have meant forfeiting our commitment to protect our users’ privacy. That is a compromise we are not willing to make.

“Although the Pakistani government’s directive was aimed only at our BES servers, we have decided to exit the market altogether, because Pakistan’s demand for open access to monitor a significant swath of our customers’ communications within its borders left us no choice but to exit the country entirely.”

Although Blackberry’s operations were initially set to wind up on 30th November, this deadline was extended to 30th December.