DATELINE JLB’S BLACKBERRY STORM — Threats by the Saudi and
United Arab Emirates governments to cut off access to the
BlackBerry network were ignored by U.S. media this week. RIM —
the Canadian company which sells the “smart phones” and operates
the computer servers through which billions of emails and other
communications flow every day — faced the loss of huge markets.
The Saudis suddenly imposed a ban on BlackBerry, causing
about 700,000 users to lose emailing ability. The UAE threatened
an October 11 ban because, as the Financial Times
reports, the BlackBerry network was “causing serious
social, judicial and national security repercussions.”
Pi — the mathematical constant that enables us to compute
the dimensions of a circle — is an irrational number. It is not
a ratio of a to b, but a constant that flows
beyond the decimal point to infinity without repeating itself.
BlackBerrys are an inconstant force that the Muslim nations want
to reduce to a finite one they can control.
The Saudis may have settled the dispute with RIM in
a deal to have a new server in-country, apparently
to enable the government easier interception of communications.
Indonesia, Lebanon, India and other nations are considering bans.
China worked out a deal last year, similar to the reported Saudi
deal.
But that’s not the story. It’s not about an Arab abhorrence
of modern technology, or some effort to grab a piece of the
financial pie. It’s about despots straining to stay in power over
increasingly free people. It is the social repercussions of free
speech they fear.
About five years ago, talking with one of the Pentagon’s
China experts, I mused that Communist China couldn’t become a
free nation because the people lacked the power to overthrow
their oppressors.
“No,” he told me. “And this is what will bring freedom to
the Chinese.” He held up his cell phone. Any government that
can’t control the communication of ideas and events, he said,
cannot maintain the power that is necessary to oppress its
people. Which is why the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia
are so desperate to limit or disable entirely their peoples’
access to the BlackBerry network.
Love them or hate them, today’s “smart phones” are
political devices. We jaded political types complain (actually,
brag) to each other about the number of emails and cell calls we
get every day, but we can’t function without them. The facts that
these personal communication devices are so common, carrying so
many billions of conversations each day — and that the
BlackBerry is designed to secure its communications against all
but the most expert hackers, enables privacy that protects the
users. And in privacy there is freedom for those who fear their
governments.
With the addition of social networking websites such as
Twitter, Facebook, and the like, each BlackBerry (or iPhone or
Palm or Droid or whatever) becomes a portable publisher. You can
report (as I have) on events in real time via Twitter, albeit one
sentence at a time, and reach tens of thousands instantly. More,
if your readers resend to their readers, which they often
do.
If Jefferson, Madison, and Paine had BlackBerrys, the
American Revolution would have begun years earlier. And, yes, the
Declaration of Independence would have probably been reduced to,
“Yo, Brit dudes: you’re outa here.” But what they rob us of in
scholarly style and historic character, they offset with
immediacy and broad reach. (The Declaration and “Common Sense”
could have been written in full and published as e-mail
attachments. It’s not parchment, but they would have been read
sooner by more people.)
Its security, coupled with that reach and immediacy, makes
the BlackBerry a political force, much more so than its unsecure
competitors.
Security against terrorism is the alleged concern driving
the governments, even India’s, to try to force RIM to give them
the computer codes necessary to monitor all communications. RIM
denies it has them. Last year, the UAE demanded that RIM
distribute to its users a program that would embed in the
BlackBerrys to allow easier monitoring. But, according to the
expert I consult with on these matters, the UAE add was
“spyware.” It would have allowed the UAE government to get into
the system (perhaps globally, not just for its own nation’s
users) and capture everything from your stored telephone contacts
to your e-mails. RIM, as it should have, refused.
And it must continue to do so. Any government that wants to
monitor BlackBerry communications can do so if they invest enough
in technology and personnel to do it. But in refusing to give
them the keys to the BlackBerry kingdom, RIM is forcing them to
make choices and establish priorities.
If a government really wants to focus its intelligence
gathering on terrorist communications — as ours has through the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — it can. Under FISA, any
innocent conversations that are intercepted have to be ignored
and any recording or documentation of them must be destroyed. By
adopting that model, the despots would not have total — make
that totalitarian — ability to limit free speech and punish or
prevent the “social repercussions” the UAE wants to block. India,
especially vulnerable to Pakistan-based terror networks, has no
reason to not adopt our model.
For all those who want political freedom, there are tools
to protect it on your BlackBerry. If you’re visiting a country
that isn’t free (such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, or China) you
should take precautions to maintain your
privacy. According to my expert, there are
open-sourced tools available — such as the “Kisses” software —
to detect and remove spyware from your BlackBerry. Because this
software is open-sourced, the bad guys already must have it,
so there’s no reason not to tell everyone about
it. (Kisses is distributed for free. Check it
out here.
I did. In my expert’s view, it works and that’s good enough for
me.)
Technology moves faster than despotism. BlackBerry is
leading the way. Maybe, someday, all those annoying iPhone users
will stop insisting on showing us the latest “app” that is cooler
than anything on our BlackBerrys. I have more political freedom
on my secure BlackBerry than is provided by the latest “app” that
buys movie tickets for me.
Kisses for my BlackBerry? You bet. And Twitter, Facebook,
and all the political force they allow me to create.
