Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of law and computer science at Harvard and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said the statement appeared to address only the products that the company sold to corporate customers, not those it sells directly to consumers.
Corporate customers tend to be of less concern to governments, he said, because criminals or terrorists are less likely to engage in illegal activities from corporate e-mail systems, and because governments can go directly to those corporations to obtain employees’ information.
“This doesn’t put the main question to rest,” Professor Zittrain said. “It doesn’t explain under what circumstances would the average BlackBerry user have his communications exposed.”
A spokeswoman for R.I.M. said the company would not elaborate on its statement.