China Gets Wiretap Security, But Not India Or America.
It is strange that authoritarian China demands and gets a better wiretap internet security deal than the two largest democracies of the world, India and the US.
It is not the market size alone that makes Blackberry, Facebook, Google or Skype listen to the Chinese and devise special provisions for wiretapping of encrypted subscribers' data or peer to peer messages. The combined market size of the two democracies is bigger in both numbers and in value, so the special privileges are not related to market economics.
China, and even Russia, delayed BlackBerry permission to operate encrypted services in their nations for over two years, until they were satisfied that they had wire-tapping security as well as blanking facility to block wireless communication through local partner routing.
Most internet and mobile communications service providers are aware that China doesn’t negotiate. They use strong-arm techniques to gain access to peer to peer networks to ensure their safety and security, actions that include stifling protests of dissidents. But why should that alone entitle them to a better deal on internet security?
A recent interview of Google CEO Eric Schmidt with Emmy Award-winner Business Week analyst Charlie Rose revealed the reason why China gets the special treatment, and how Google found it impossible to counter the trend.
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