UAE raises prospect of curbs on BlackBerrys

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The United Arab Emirates raised the possibility on Sunday of restricting or monitoring BlackBerry mobile phones, when the country’s regulator said the handsets were not covered by its laws.

Research in Motion’s BlackBerry services, such as e-mail and instant messaging, use internal encrypted networks that are difficult for governments to monitor. This has caused particular concern in nations such as the security-conscious UAE.

The introduction of the BlackBerry predates the passage of the UAE’s safety, emergency and national security legislation in 2007.