RIM shares drop

Research In Motion shares fell more than four per cent Wednesday as the BlackBerry maker scrambled to address concerns about its technology that assures a user's email is private.

RIM shares were down $2.36, at $54.41, near the end of trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. 

Investors worried that several countries in emerging markets — a key growth area for RIM — will ban services such as email and messaging on BlackBerrys because of national security concerns.

Waterloo, Ont.-based RIM issued a statement early in the day saying it wanted "to set the record straight" after recent "commentary, speculation and misrepresentation."

Various reports have said that RIM has been working with governments to offer solutions to their concerns about the inability of their national security agencies to monitor traffic among terrorists, insurgents or criminals.

The statement said the encryption system it uses on the BlackBerry smartphone does not allow access to encrypted data to anyone, not even the company itself.

"RIM cannot accommodate any request for a copy of a customer's encryption key, since at no time does RIM, or any wireless operator or any third party, ever possess a copy of the key," the statement said.

"Any claims that we provide, or have ever provided, something unique to the government of one country that we have not offered to the governments of all countries, are unfounded."

The United Arab Emirates announced over the weekend that it would block BlackBerry email, messaging and web-browsing services starting in October because authorities don't have enough access to communications from the devices.

India is also pressing for more access, but isn't explicitly threatening a shutdown.

Torch launches

On Tuesday, the Saudi state news agency, SPA, said in a report that Saudi Arabia's telecom regulator has informed mobile service providers in the country that they must halt some BlackBerry services starting Friday.

The controversy came amid the launch Tuesday of RIM's Torch, which will be the company's first device with both a touch screen as well as the BlackBerry's signature full-alphabet keypad.

It hits AT&T stores on Aug. 12 for $199 US with a two-year contract.

No Canadian release date for the Torch has been announced, but wireless carriers in this country, including Rogers Communications, Bell Mobility, Telus and Virgin Mobile, have all said they would offer the device this year. Bell said the device would be available this fall.