A press freedom group published a letter on Monday asking for more information from a phone company in the United Arab Emirates concerning surveillance software it allegedly installed on more than 100,000 BlackBerry phones.
In the letter, Reporters Without Borders asks what the company's position is "regarding the alleged presence of spyware on BlackBerry mobile phones in the United Arab Emirates."
"Independent sources say this software, which intercepts private communications and confidential information, has been installed on the phones of 145,000 Etisalat clients," the letter continues, referring to the company in question.
Etisalat is the largest of two telecommunications service providers licensed to operate in the developing Middle Eastern country. It's 60 per cent government-owned and operates in 17 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
The company recommended in late June that its BlackBerry subscribers in the United Arab Emirates download a new bundle of software. But customers complained, once it was installed, that the battery life on their smart phones dropped off to less than 60 minutes in some cases.
Experts later identified the application as spyware that's able to read and store user emails and personal information.
Waterloo, Ont.-based Research In Motion responded by stating it was "not involved in any way in the testing, promotion or distribution," of the software. It confirmed that the application wasn't designed to improve the performance the BlackBerry phones, "but rather to send and receive messages back to a central server."
RIM has since made its own software program available that removes the spyware. It has advised BlackBerry owners not to download applications from "unknown or untrusted sources" and has warned that Etisalat may attempt to install the software again.
A California-based company called SS8, which specializes in communications interception, electronic surveillance and law enforcement products, is believed to have designed the software.
It's not clear why Etisalat felt the installation was necessary. It has denied installing spyware and has insisted the software bundle was required "for service enhancements."
Reporters Without Borders has included the United Arab Emirates on its list of "countries under surveillance" since 2008.
"It would be very regrettable it were declared an 'Enemy of the Internet,'" the organization concludes in its letter to the government-controlled telecommunications firm.
