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BlackBerry Chief Executive Officer John Chen stepped into the encryption debate in December. “We are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good,” Chen said in a blog post.

Public Debate

A spokeswoman for BlackBerry declined to comment on the Vice story. Harold Pfleiderer, a spokesman for the RCMP, declined to comment on the specifics of the case, saying the force’s investigations are governed by Canadian law and court orders. Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale, which oversees the RCMP, declined to comment on the specifics of the case but said he welcomed a public debate on encryption.

“Canadians need to reflect on this new and emerging area of law, privacy and crime prevention,” Goodale said in an e-mailed statement.

The cases reveal the different lines Apple and BlackBerry have drawn about whose data they are willing to help governments access. BlackBerry has staunchly rejected governments who have asked for access to the special servers used by its corporate and government clients, going so far as pulling out of Pakistan.

Like Apple does with its newest consumer phones, BlackBerry insists it doesn’t have the keys to decrypt data passed through those servers. But the Vice story alleges BlackBerry was willing to give police access to the encryption keys for consumer phones.

Larger Discussion

Government departments around the world still use BlackBerry phones, even as regular consumers have abandoned them for the app-rich environments provided by devices running Apple and Google software. The customer base may offer clues as to why BlackBerry seems willing to co-operate with governments, said Christopher Parsons, a security researcher at the University of Toronto.