My life

Banning the blackberry

How much power should a Government have?  Today it has been announced that the United Arab Emirates is going to stop everyone in the country using their blackberry handsets to access the internet and send text messages.  Saudi Arabia is blocking everyone sending text messages.

The reason they are doing is because they are unable to monitor what is being said by people on the phones.  I think that it is a very big step for the country to do this and they have gone to far but I can understand why they have taken it.  A lot of surveillance and anti terrorism work is done though tapping phones and reading text messages so this leaves terrorists in the country with a perfect way to communicate without the Government being able to see.

On the other hand there the nearly 1m people between the two states that will have useless handsets.  It looks like the companies that let you sell your mobile for mobile phone recycling are going to be doing good business there.

Surely some agreement could be made between the owner of blackberry and the two states that would allow phones users to keep using the services.  Blackberry have sold 1m handsets in the country so it is a lot of business they could be losing.

I know I would not be happy is the phone I had just brought stopped working properly.  The reason it happens that a few people can not be trusted so it ruins it for everyone else.  It is sad that this has happened but understandable, a Government can not allow people to do things without being watched.  There are always a few that are a danger to the rest which results in everyone’s being put under surveillance.