Privacy rights: BlackBerry maker vows privacy

Research In Motion vows to defend legal privacy rights of smartphone users.

OTTAWA: Research In Motion has vowed to defend the legal privacy rights of BlackBerry users after the judicial commission ordered copies of smartphone communications for the Memogate scandal probe.

On Monday, the commission directed Pakistan government  officials to obtain the BlackBerry ‘record of conversation’ between Mansoor Ijaz and Husain Haqqani. Canada-based RIM, which makes the BlackBerry, said: “Like others in our industry, from time to time, we may receive requests from legal authorities for lawful access assistance.”

The statement added: “We are guided by appropriate legal processes and publicly disclosed lawful access principles in this regard as we balance any such requests against our priority of maintaining the privacy rights of our users.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2012.