BERLIN – Germany has approved BlackBerry’s purchase of encryption firm Secusmart after signing a “no-spy” agreement with the Canadian smartphone maker.
Duesseldorf-based Secusmart provides special smartphones to German government officials that are meant to be safe from eavesdropping.
German media report that BlackBerry has agreed to provide Germany with access to software source codes.
Public broadcasters NDR and WDR, and daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, also report that BlackBerry has provided Germany with assurances that it isn’t required to pass any confidential data to other governments.
Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth declined to publicly comment on a confidential agreement but said “we have succeeded in protecting our security interests.”
READ MORE: BlackBerry acquires anti-eavesdropping firm SecuSmart
Germany reacted with anger last year to reports, based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, that the NSA had targeted Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone.
Chief executive John Chen said buying the company will address growing concerns about threats to individual privacy and national security.
“We are always improving our security solutions to keep up with the growing complexity of enterprise mobility, with devices being used for more critical tasks and to store more critical information, and security attacks becoming more sophisticated,” Chen said in July when the deal was first announced.
BlackBerry has previously worked with SecuSmart to develop special technology for phones that were distributed to several German government agencies, as well as German government ministries and leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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