BlackBerry Says Nah to Pakistan's Demands to Access Private Customer Data, Gets Kicked Out of Country

Pakistan is reportedly giving BlackBerry the boot after the company defiantly refused to agree to local government’s demands for a "permanent back door" into BlackBerry servers, a move which would of course grant access to private customer information. "While we regret leaving this important market and our valued customers there, remaining in Pakistan would have meant forfeiting our commitment to protect our users’ privacy," BlackBerry CEO Marty Beard said in a press release on Monday. "That is a compromise we are not willing to make."

The country cites "security concerns" as the inspiration for their decision and has given BlackBerry an extended deadline of December 30 before operations cease, according to CNN Money. "The truth is that the Pakistani government wanted the ability to monitor all BlackBerry Enterprise Service traffic in the country, including every BES e-mail and BES BBM message," Beard says. "But BlackBerry will not comply with that sort of directive."

BlackBerry’s battle against a potential privacy breach started back in July, at which point the government requested access to all encrypted traffic that travels through the company’s regional servers. After the deadline, BlackBerry will no longer operate servers in Pakistan or provide service for its Pakistani customers.