RIM BlackBerry Services get 60-day Grace Period

Research in Motion met the Indian Union Home Ministry yesterday for discussions of providing lawful access to encrypted services as August 31 was the deadline for barring BlackBerry Services if RIM doesn't do the needful. However, the Indian government has now accepted RIM's proposal for 'lawful access by law enforcement agencies' of encrypted BlackBerry data. Also, RIM earned a 60-day grace to continue BlackBerry services in India, reported The Economic Times. But by November end, RIM will need to set up a local server in India or else its services will be banned in the country.

So, BlackBerry owners can heave a sigh of relief and continue using the services without any sort of worry.

Canadian smartphone maker RIM had issued a media statement clarifying its stand regarding its squabble with the Indian government. In that statement, RIM clarified that there was no master key or any backdoor for accessing encrypted corporate information. Also, RIM stated that the data remains encrypted all the time between the customer's BlackBerry Enterprise Server and his BlackBerry device. However, even after yesterday's meeting, the government of India holds on to its stand and RIM will still have to provide data access to security agencies.

After dealing with RIM for BlackBerry services, the Indian government will take similar steps against Google, Skype, MSN hotmail and VPNs to make encrypted services accessible and available in readable format. From today onwards, the government will send notices to these companies to set up local servers in India if their services cannot be monitored by Indian Security Agencies. A government official told The Economic Times, "We are very clear... anything which must be lawfully intercepted has to be made accessible to us... that too in an intelligible and readable format." 

The government intends to make all encrypted email and messaging services accessible in a readable format for security agencies. This is to monitor any misuse by terrorists and ensure national security. 

Finnish handset maker Nokia has made the best out of the situation to get its email and messaging services free from any such lawful hiccups. Nokia India VP D. Shivakumar has stated that the company will install local servers as well as infrastructure to monitor encrypted email and messaging data. 

It would be interesting to see whether any disturbance would be caused to millions of Google, Skype and MSN Hotmail users in India by any further action taken by the government.