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Update #2: Appears that since almost beginning of the year, Viber on Alfa network is working again. Had to wait for a period of time before confirming. Seems like the ministry changed its mind after all.
Update: Please check Viber's official response below in the comments.
Yes... That's true. One day I was using viber to connect with my family abroad, the next day my viber status indicates "disconnected". I asked my friends to check if their viber was disconnected... Nopes. Theirs is working perfectly fine. Hmmm what's wrong?
I go back home, use my wireless, and bammm... it connects again. Sooo the issue has to do with my alfa line. Fair enough.. They have a problem I say to myself. Next day, same issue. I call alfa,...
Alfa: Viber is blocked in Lebanon
Me: May I know why?
Alfa: No. Ministry of communications has decided to block it.
Me: But I would like to know why.
Alfa: We cannot say.
Me: How come MTC and my DSL provider have not blocked it yet.
Alfa: They eventually will block it. Its the ministry's decision... It will be enforced.
Two days before the above, I received a newsletter linking to this article "ما لا تعرفونه عن برنامج المحادثات المجاني “Viber”!" : http://goo.gl/DLu4e . I linked the blockage on Viber to this news.
To cut the story short, it appears Viber is owned by an Israeli-American and its head quarters are in Cyprus, and concludes that since it is a free application and ad-free application, the only reason it was created was to "spy" on its users. The article discusses more reasons to question Viber.
This whole story made me think of two main things. The first is that a simple article in an online news site can lead to a decision from the ministry to block a major application that is used by hundreds of thousands in Lebanon to contact their dear ones.The ministry did not publish any reasons for this block, nor did it inform the Lebanese mobile users. I, as a user of the application, would like to know whether I was being spied on or not. Has the ministry done its research and confirmed the issue or is the blockage just based on rumors? I believe that we have the right to know.
Secondly and most importantly, and that's why this is posted on a security blog is to remind myself before others that all these applications we install on our phones should not be blindly trusted. We grant these applications access to our phone books, messages, instant messages, photos, location..... Can you imagine what one of those application creators could know about your life? Just a thought.
Hi there
ReplyDeleteThis is an official representative of Viber Media. We’re here to answer your questions and address your concerns :)
– Regarding the points raised in the article and the doubts expressed by the users:
Viber is based in Cyprus with development facilities in Israel and Belarus. Servers are all over the world, but the ones storing the data (the “database”) are in the US.
Viber is a 100% commercially-run company, and has nothing to do with any government or governmental institute, including the Israeli one.
– In relation to Viber’s privacy policy:
First, it is important to be accurate – we only collect names and phone numbers, nothing else. Naturally, we collect users’ information for functional reasons, in order for us to enable the service that we, as a company, promise to provide. Without that information, Viber cannot function. This is not different from any other major social network/communication service provider in our world nowadays, as explained by other users in the above comments.
I would like to clarify: we *do not* and will never sell users’ information to third-parties, and we keep this information well locked in our servers, with extremely limited access to it. This information (in great detail) is explained in our very clear and transparent Privacy Policy – to which we are committed by law – that can be found in our official homepage. Have you taken a close look at it?
If after reading it carefully there are still doubts or questions, then we will be more than happy to assist and clarify and answer any of them.
If you still have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to write them, and we will address them shortly :)
Best regards,
Viber.
Viber references "user comments above" where are they?
ReplyDeleteHe has deleted comments in the past, like those in other posts he made. Don't know why he doesn't just reply to them and set them straight.
ReplyDeleteHi Andrew. I just deleted anonymous comments which were out of context or had no aim but to insult. Any constructive comments and discussions are always welcome.
DeleteReally? I read one of them it was more like hard criticism of your post. But whatever, you can censor what you want :-)
ReplyDeleteAndrew the author of all the comments was the same and hence my decision to delete them. I will try to respond to future comments even if out context rather than delete them.
DeleteIs Viber allowed to the countries which don't have diplomatic relation with Admin's countries? i need to know it.
ReplyDeleteallowing you a security company