Ever since the cyber law of India has been transformed into an endemic e-surveillance instrumentality, the real intentions of Indian government have become apparent from time to time. It has launched many “unconstitutional projects” like Aadhar/UID, Natgrid, CCTNS, etc without any legal framework and procedural safeguards.The sole aim of the information technology amendment act, 2008 was to confer illegal and unconstitutional e-surveillance and Internet censorship powers upon Indian government and its agencies and instrumentalities. Now only “outlaws” would have civil liberties in India. However, service providers like Blackberry, Skype, Gmail, etc are also facing the heat of the e-surveillance initiatives of Indian government.
Research in motion (RIM) has been in line of fire from Indian government over encryption usages. Sooner or later, Blackberry would succumb to the pressure of Indian government and would give up the privacy and cyber security protection provided by its encryption methods. According to Praveen Dalal, leading techno legal and cyber law expert of India, users can have good and effective alternatives to Blackberry phones. With open source encryption software like PGP, services like Blackberry can be availed on any smart phone, informs Praveen Dalal.
Does it mean a demise of Blackberry in India? Of course, those believing in privacy and security would shift to smart phones with independent encryption and security software as compared to Blackberry. While Blackberry’s instant messaging and e-mail services would be under continuous e-surveillance, other smart phones with independent encryption and security software are better situated, opines Praveen Dalal.
It seems in these circumstances, the future of Blackberry is not that great in India. Even otherwise, it is always better to use a services that has no backdoors and access points for law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies than those having the same, suggests Praveen Dalal.
