BlackBerry CEO criticizes Apple's privacy stance


Mixed messages from BlackBerry CEO John Chen. He was speaking at BlackBerry's Security Summit this week:

Via The Inquirer:

"One of our competitors, we call it 'the other fruit company', has an attitude that it doesn't matter how much it might hurt society, they're not going to help," he said.

"I found that disturbing as a citizen. I think BlackBerry, like any company, should have a basic civil responsibility. If the world is in danger, we should be able to help out."

This doesn't mean that BlackBerry is handing out your information willy nilly, though, and Chen pointed out that a lot of "nonsense" has been reported about the company and its approach to such situations.

"Of course, there need to be clear guidelines. The guidelines we've adopted require legal assets. A subpoena for certain data. But if you have the data, you should give it to them," he said.

My understanding is that's basically Apple's position too. If they have the data, they provide it upon legal request. But if they don't have then you don't have the data. He also stats he's against any mandated backdoors.

Chen made similar comments last year during the Apple-FBI PR battle. It's weird and doesn't make much sense to me. I'll guess Chen is hoping rhetoric will win some favor with government buyers.