Security concerns associated with the services of BlackBerry, the smartphone used by nearly a million customers in India, have come to the fore again, raising the possibility of a fresh standoff between the Canadian service provider and the government.
The government plans to give BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) 15 days to ensure that its email and other data services comply with �formats that can be read by security and intelligence agencies� after its spooks recently raised a red flag against the popular handset, said department of telecom (DoT) officials familiar with the matter.
Senior officials of key security agencies in a recent meeting argued that the continuation of BlackBerry services in the present format presents a danger to the country, said these persons who were part of the discussions. The meet was chaired by home secretary GK Pillai and attended by representatives of the home ministry, DoT, intelligence agencies and the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO).
DoT officials said popular internet telephony firm Skype would also be given a 15-day deadline to ensure that calls carried by it to and from India are in formats that could be intercepted by law enforcement agencies here.
In a related development, the government has also decided to ask internet giant Google to ensure that encryptions for its Gmail services in India are in formats that can be monitored by Indian agencies. While Google has not been given a timeframe, the telecom ministry, IB and NTRO, in a note to the Parliamentary Committee looking into security concerns, said the company must comply with the new rules.