Here's a mystery for you: why did Research in Motion, the maker of the insanely popular BlackBerry handset, have to issue a patch for a software update in the United Arab Emirates?
On the surface, the details appear straightforward: part of a software update issued by Etisalat, one of the UAE's major telecoms companies, included spyware that could potentially allow somebody to keep tabs on BlackBerry users. RIM took action to close the loophole last week and a number of news outlets, including the BBC have now reported the story.
"Independent sources have concluded that the Etisalat update is not designed to improve performance of your BlackBerry Handheld, but rather to send received messages back to a central server," said the Canadian mobile company in a statement.
But although the fix has now been issued, and around 145,000 users have been saved from having their activities watched, the question remains: why did Etisalat issue this patch in the first place?
The Abu Dhabi-based company has said it was a "slight technical fault" with an upgrade that was "required for service enhancements" but other than has remained unresponsive.
It's worth looking at this action in context of the news in recent months about internet censorship – and we've certainly seen a lot of that, thanks to events in China and Iran.
But, clearly, those are different countries. So what's going on in the UAE?
Although some parts of the emirates have gained a reputation for openness, the situation on the ground is still restrictive. According to the OpenNet Initiative, internet filtering in the UAE is "substantial", with the country's internet providers taking a strict line against data that is "against the moral values" of the nation. That includes pornography and politically dangerous material – and Etisalat, as one of the country's two major ISPs, is a major part of that filtering effort.
While it's far from clear that the company is complicit in a fresh attempt at censorship by the government (and the other major telco in the emirates, Du, has not deployed a similar update), it is certainly not beyond the authorities in the UAE to crack down on online behaviour or monitor people's communications.
It's easy to think that the repression of information is just about closing newspapers, shutting down TV stations, throttling the internet and blocking websites. Sometimes, though, control is exercised by invisible – and dangerous – means.
