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Smartphone maker BlackBerry has announced that it will pull out of Pakistan at the end of the year after a row over government requests to monitor user data.
Pakistan’s government notified the technology company earlier this year that BlackBerry’s secure Enterprise Servers (BES) would no longer be able to operate in the country for security reasons.
In a blog post, BlackBerry said they felt the need to exit the market as staying “would have meant forfeiting our commitment to protect our users’ privacy. That is a compromise we are not willing to make”.
The post, by the firm’s chief operating officer Marty Beard, added: “The truth is that the Pakistani government wanted the ability to monitor all BlackBerry Enterprise Service traffic in the country, including every BES e-mail and BES BBM message. But BlackBerry will not comply with that sort of directive.
“As we have said many times, we do not support ‘back doors’ granting open access to our customers’ information and have never done this anywhere in the world.”
Apple chief Tim Cook has also spoken out against the use of ‘back doors’ into encrypted data – something authorities want to introduce to combat extremism. Cook, along with other tech superpowers, has suggested such set-ups could be compromised and used by hackers just as much as government agencies.
BlackBerry initially said it would shut down in Pakistan at the end of November, however the country’s government has since delayed the shutdown order on BlackBerry servers by a month, with the company saying it will remain until that time.
