Canadian Policy Brief > BlackBerry Messages Used to Catch Murder Suspects

BlackBerry Messages Used to Catch Murder Suspects

January 12, 2012

A recent media report revealed that the BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion (RIM), may have helped Québec police catch Raynald Desjardins and Vittorio Mirarchi, suspects in the murder of mobster Salvatore Montagna. According to an article in the Ottawa Citizen, the police obtained BlackBerry messages that helped them catch the suspects.

The newspaper reported that Jonathan Meuier, a lawyer representing Desjardins in the case, spent a day in court trying to find out how police obtained the BlackBerry messages and if a proper warrant was issued or if RIM just cooperated with the request. RIM neither confirmed nor denied assistance.

“From time to time, we may receive requests from legal authorities for lawful access assistance," a statement provided by BlackBerry spokeswoman Marisa Conway said. "We are guided by appropriate legal processes - We balance any such requests against our priority of maintaining the privacy rights of our users."

According to the article, Canadians send an average of 224 million text messages a day – not counting those sent by BlackBerry Messenger, whose statistics are not released. The current case provokes the questions, “Are text messages private?” and “Is it legal for police officers to read them?”

Eloise Gratton, a lawyer who specializes in information technology, explained that technology is shifting quickly and it’s no longer safe to assume that encrypted test messages are “ultra-secure.”

"That's the thing. We're at a crossroads here," Gratton said, adding that “courts need to rule on the privacy of text messages. Right now, it's not very hard to make a legal case that since text messaging security can easily be breached and text messages easily obtained, getting them is not illegal.”

Additionally, Gratton noted that RIM may have voluntarily given the messages to police or may have clauses that allow them to cooperate with police.

“People think that everything is private when it's not really. The (legal) expectation of privacy when using these technologies is very subjective. The expectation of privacy is eroding."

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