Despite the good news that BlackBerry is having for its release of the new Torch slider smartphone few weeks ago, BlackBerry is having a rough time abroad with two foreign governments.

Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have decided that since they are unable to track their citizen’s emails that go through their BlackBerry devices that they will no longer allow BlackBerries to be used in their country. Not by foreigners and not by their own citizens.

This speaks volumes about BlackBerries encryption, when the United Arab Emirates went to BlackBerry with the “problem” and BlackBerry told them there was absolutely no back door and that they can’t even get to the information themselves. I heard one person say on a podcast that BlackBerry should use this as a marketing ploy, because their email transmission is so safe that there is no one better. I agree.

This brings up a huge problem in terms of privacy for travelers and for citizens of other countries. People are so surprised when they hear things like this, but it happens on a regular basis and those of us that are lucky enough to live in a 1st world country are truly lucky.

The United Arab Emirates decided this week after some contemplation last week that they would begin banning the use of BlackBerry devices, internet, email, and data services within the country. The ban goes into effect October 1st. There are going to be some very upset travelers when they get to the U.A.E for vacation or business and cannot access their important information.

The Saudi Arabia ban goes into effect on August 6th, a much faster timeline since it was just announced this week. The Saudi kingdom blamed RIM and the service providers for not allowing them to access their customers data, something RIM holds near and dear to their corporate heart.

The two markets are not huge for Blackberry, but they are significant. Currently in Saudi Arabia there are 750,000 BlackBerry devices in service while in the United Arab Emirates there are approximately 500,000 devices.

This could be a bad turn for BlackBerry if totalitarian governments decide that they are “unsafe” because of encryption and BlackBerry could start seeing the negative effects sooner rather than later. Hopefully these countries and kingdoms come around and some work around is reached, until then the U.A.E is suggesting that people purchase iPhones that makes me feel safe.

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