Who’s listening?

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Etisalat’s handset partner and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion claimed that Etisalat appeared to have distributed a telecoms surveillance application without RIM’s knowledge.

Accused of spying on its BlackBerry subscribers’ emails, Etisalat is facing a rising chorus of disapproval from customers demanding answers from the embattled UAE telecoms operator.

When Kalyan Charan downloaded a piece of software from Etisalat onto his BlackBerry smartphone he received a nasty shock.

Instead of the performance enhancement Etisalat promised Charan the patch would provide, the software had exactly the opposite effect on his handset.

“My phone started overheating,” explained a distinctly unimpressed Charan in a post on ArabianBusiness.com.

“All my calls to 101 [Etisalat’s customer helpline] were put on hold for eternity and then disconnected, then eventually my LCD screen burnt out from the heat the patch was generating,” he added.

Charan was just one of several hundred BlackBerry subscribers left frustrated after downloading the “performance enhancement patch” issued by the UAE telecoms provider at the start of July only to find it led to problems, not least, severely sapping the battery life of handsets.

At the time, state-controlled Etisalat said the software it issued to its 145,000 BlackBerry subscribers was designed to improve coverage for users moving from 3G to 2G network coverage areas within the UAE.

But frustration among BlackBerry users turned to anger as various software and telecom security experts concluded that Etisalat’s claims about the application were false and that it was, in fact, a surveillance patch, enabling the operator to intercept emails sent from the smartphone.

Online message boards were inundated with irate customers venting their fury with Etisalat, while the controversy of the spyware scandal even spawned a catchy song at the operator’s expense posted on YouTube.

“This is a total invasion of privacy by Etisalat. I wonder who or what inspired this? Are they trying to tie us down?,” said Jeny Michaels, an angry BlackBerry subscriber, in a post on ArabianBusiness.com.

“Moreover, we have critical corporate data on our BlackBerry which we now are unsure is safe or not.”

The problems deepened for Etisalat when handset partner and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) added its weight to the spyware allegations in a statement on July 17, claiming that the operator appeared to have distributed a telecommunications surveillance application without the Canadian firm’s knowledge.

“Under such circumstances, independent sources have concluded that it is possible that the installed software could then enable unauthorised access to private or confidential information stored on the user’s smartphone,” read the statement.

For its part, Etisalat has kept its response to the accusations to a minimum but it has repeated its insistence that the Java-based software was to aid 2G to 3G handovers.

This patch is not for spying,” Abdulla Hashim, vice president of enterprise solutions for Etisalat, told Arabian Business in an exclusive interview on July 23.

“The patch was needed to improve performance on the Blackberry coverage.

“Etisalat has 3G and 2G networks and this [the patch] was to enhance the handover from 3G to 2G when people are moving around the UAE as 3G is not 100 percent. 3G is 97 percent coverage.”

Hashim’s comments contradict RIM’s assertion that it was “not aware of any technical network concerns with the performance of BlackBerry smartphones on Etisalat’s network in the UAE.”

Asked if Etisalat regretted issuing the patch, Hashim said: “We don’t feel happy as we were hoping it [the patch] would improve things but it caused problems, despite testing.

“But we don’t regret the intention of what we tried to achieve. Whenever we find software to enhance the performance of a mobile device and improve customer experience we will issue it. It is our duty to improve network performance.”

The firm, he said, had since stopped issuing the patch.

BlackBerry subscribers, however, remain unconvinced by Etisalat’s insistence the patch was not a surveillance application.

“You’ll be telling us the world is flat next and at the centre of the universe,” read a sarcastic post by a BlackBerry user on ArabianBusiness.com.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Added interest
Posted by Julian on Tuesday 4 August 2009 at 13:47 UAE time

Reporters without Borders have now sent Etisilat an open letter demanding that they respond further to the accusations.

http://www.rsf.org/Spyware-on-BlackBerry-phones.html

no rights
Posted by HD on Sunday 2 August 2009 at 10:58 UAE time


i cant say i would necessarily switch providers because of the spying issue given that we live in a country with no rules or regulations in terms of privacy and I am sure that we were already being spied on with all other handsets, so what makes this so different?
However compensation is due considering that they ruined peoples days and harmed business because of phones running out of battery and burning out.

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