• Media Enquiries

    07505 448925(24hr)

UN Telecoms Chief wants Blackberry data

Many liberties have been lost in the so-called 'War on Terror', some of which we are only now trying to claw-back. Despite this, there is much more we could still lose and it is therefore of critical importance that we remain on our guard.

UN Blackberry The latest story comes, perhaps surprisingly, from the UN – whose Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union Agency, Hamadoun Toure, has told the Associated Press that the Canadian manufacturer of the BlackBerry should allow law enforcement agencies access to customer data.

Sometimes you just have to admire the sheer chutzpah of these people.

As AP explains:

Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, said officials fighting terrorism had the right to demand access to users' information from the maker of the BlackBerry — Research in Motion Ltd.

"Those are genuine requests," he told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "There is a need for cooperation between governments and the private sector on security issues."

Toure's organization is responsible for coordinating the use of the global radio spectrum, promoting international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, and establishing standards for the telecommunications industry. The little-known body also serves as a global forum for discussion of cutting-edge communications issues.

The agency has no independent regulatory power, but Toure's comments are a barometer of sentiment among the agency's 192 member states, which are expected to re-elect him to a second term later this year.

It comes to something when I am almost not in the least bit surprised by this story. However rather than an authoritarian Home Secretary post-7/7 circumscribing the rights of individuals; this is a moderately powerful international bureaucrat, flexing his muscles at a private company. This in turn also gives us a sense of direction of the U.N. – we will find no allies in privacy there.

All of which paints a very grim picture for the future – and a good reason to start considering a change in phone!

By Dylan Sharpe

Posted on September 3, 2010 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Overbearing state, Privacy
  • concerned

    If this is what they are admitting to wanting in public what on earth are they accessing or trying to access, without our knowledge? Consent seems to be a word that is fast disappearing – we are being bullied, harassed and forced to give up our data in all sorts of ways. This is not right and we should have a choice about whether to consent or not. We should be able to say no and have this, as our choice, respected and adhered to.

  • Chris

    The politicos & their pen pushers are running amock & need to be stopped

  • Gareth

    The UN have a telecommunications branch? Is there *anything* they don’t meddle in?
    Here is an example of the same secretive political workings the EU deploys. Many of the unpleasant directives begin in the minds of national civil servants and are passed up the chain in the direction of Brussels. If they are popular national leaders claim them as their own. If they are unpopular national leaders say there is nothing they can do.
    The EU and the UN likewise are political foils for the wishes of national Governments who are too afraid to ask their own people directly.

  • Just another sucker

    Notice on in the first line of the first comment, the word ‘they’ is used.
    This is becoming more and more common and something I found my self doing some time ago.
    We are divided and have been so by the ‘them’.
    To my mind ‘they’ are the politicians bought out by greed, lust for power and the private capitalists that they are in bed with.
    In my view devision in society is not a good thing.

  • Purlieu

    Are they saying that Blackberry’s calls are outside Echelon ?
    Wow.