US in touch with India, others

The US is in touch with India, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to understand their concerns over the security features of BlackBerry with these countries seeking greater access to messaging data. “There are issues attached to freedom of information, the flow of information, the use of technology. We are in touch with these governments,” State Department Spokesman P J Crowley told reporters at his daily news briefing.

“We’re going to try to understand what their concerns are, the nature of the ongoing negotiations that they have with this particular company. And then you’ve touched on that there are number of countries that are in the midst of these negotiations and we’ll see what the implications are,” Crowley said in response to a question.

His comments came as the Indian government asked Canada-based firm Research in Motion Ltd to allow it to monitor BlackBerry services in the country, citing security concerns.