A new country is joining the list of countries which had and are still threatening the ban of BlackBerry services. Dubai is that country. And the Police Chief here has stated that the BlackBerry phones may be used as a spy tool in the country to spy on the people there. Like India and Saudi Arabia, Dubai has also given a dead line to RIM, Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry. The country has asked for access grants to encrypted data that is sent through the phone. Dubai is worried that the countries US and Israel may spy on Dubai using the devices made by RIM.

'Dubai's police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, said that fears of espionage and information sharing by foe Israel — as well as UAE allies United States and Britain — helped prompt the possible limits on the popular BlackBerry.

Tamim told a conference on information technology that the proposed BlackBerry curbs are also "meant to control false rumors and defamation of public figures due to the absence of surveillance," according to a story posted Friday on the website of the UAE newspaper Al-Khaleej.

It is yet to see what RIM will say as a reply to this and how the country's agencies will take that.