Post-RIM, India to Crack Down on Google, Skype Citing Security Concerns

If you thought it is just the RIM BlackBerry that is at the receiving end of the India government ire, there’s lots more you need to know. Post-crackdown on BlackBerry, the nation’s administration has warned that it could go after any company – and that includes Google too – so as to keep militants and cyber spies out of its fastest growing mobile phone marketplace.

A Reuters report in this regard India had been monitoring Google’s messaging, Skype and other providers of communication in India and have even directed mobile phone operators that operate in the country to abide by the stringent norms with regard to import when they resort to purchase telecommunication network equipment. It is a known fact that Chinese telecom equipment makers of the likes of Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp have been temporarily prevented from shipping network equipment owing to fears of embedded spyware coming in. The monitoring of Google and Skype had come after having taken into account national security concerns.

RIM’s BlackBerry has been on the firing line with the government giving the company time till August 31 to comply with a request to gain access to encrypted corporate email and messaging services. If it fails to comply with these norms, the government has threatened shut down of services.RIM has been pushed to similar situations in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Algeria. It is being forecast that a shutdown of BlackBerry services in would impact as many as one million users in India.

Source: Reuters