[newtothis33]

Hi, I've enjoyed reading this thread would someone be able to answer the following for me?

I've used Blackberry Messenger for some years now, both to communicate with work colleagues and friends. I always thought that it was a private non server based communication, i.e. that it worked over Wifi or GPRS rather than through my company's network. However I noticed today that for the last 3 weeks there is a daily email being sent from my outlook account to the BB Administrator with a full breakdown of what i've typed as part of the conversations. I came here to this forum and realised that I was way off.

There's nothing that bad in my conversations but I had assumed they were private especially those with my friends. Also would that mean that any files that I have been sent from BB messenger contacts are visible by the BB administrator also?

Can someone shed some light on this for me?

Thanks

[dc/dc]

Once again, you can safely assume that anything sent or received on a BlackBerry device issued by your company can be tracked or logged.

[TXLady]

As has been said repeatedly, reiterated ad naseum, in many messages on this forum: If your company owns the device, don't use it for anything that you even remotely think they might disapprove of; assume they can see everything on it; don't try to circumvent any policies; keep your personal stuff on your personal device. And if you own your own blackberry, don't hook it up to BES as you will be giving control over to the company when you do so.

[juwaack68]

Originally Posted by newtothis33

However I noticed today that for the last 3 weeks there is a daily email being sent from my outlook account to the BB Administrator with a full breakdown of what i've typed as part of the conversations.

This means the BES Admin has turned on tracking for BlackBerry Messenger (and also means your BES is not yet version 5.0). This is the old method for BBM auditing, which sends a compiliation of your BBM convos to a specific address at specific intervals (all set up by the BES Admin).

Files that you send via BBM are not viewable (at least with this audit method) but the text of the convos is viewable.

[newtothis33]

Thank you all for your responses!

I understand what the first two responses have advised, but telling me to close the gate after the horse has bolted isn’t much help to me. Also as my name suggests I'm new to this forum and therefore was unaware that this had been "...repeatedly, reiterated ad naseum, in many messages on this forum."


Juwaack68,

Thank you very much for your response. I have now spent some more time on the forum and have found many of the threads that have previously discussed this matter. Although they have cleared many of my questions, there appears to be some ambiguity around the following:

1.BES Admin can only see the part of the conversation that is generated from its own users. Therefore if you are chatting with someone that is not part of their group, i.e. someone from another company then their part of the conversation is not visible?
Is this correct?

2.As these reports have only begun recently is it something that someone has had to go in and manually generate or could it be as result of a software upgrade on the server, where this facility has been generated automatically. I work for a pretty small organisation and I can’t see how we would even have the resource to monitor this.

Thanking you for your help with this.

[juwaack68]

1. The BES Admin can see whatever is generated in that email message you're seeing in your Sent items - be in someone in the company or someone outside the company.

2. The BBM auditing is not turned on by default - even after an upgrade or patch is applied, therefore someone had to manually go into the BES management console and turn it on. On purpose.

[dc/dc]

Originally Posted by newtothis33

Also as my name suggests I'm new to this forum and therefore was unaware that this had been "...repeatedly, reiterated ad naseum, in many messages on this forum."

Sweetie, being new to this does not absolve you of your duty to search prior to posting. I'm sorry for the bluntness, but it's serious.

[newtothis33]

Originally Posted by juwaack68

1. The BES Admin can see whatever is generated in that email message you're seeing in your Sent items - be in someone in the company or someone outside the company.

2. The BBM auditing is not turned on by default - even after an upgrade or patch is applied, therefore someone had to manually go into the BES management console and turn it on. On purpose.

Juwaack68,

Thanks once again I really appreciate your help on this. It looks like I need to get myself a personal BB to ensure privacy.

In relation to point number 1 all I'm seeing on the emails is what I've typed and if I have sent a file or photo it just lists the name or image number in brackets, such as <<IMG00016.jpg>>. So I guess that means that it's only what I send is being monitored not what I receive, is this correct?

Thanks!

[tsac]

My company views everything the BB does including all calls.

[BerryBerryTall]

Originally Posted by dc/dc

Sweetie, being new to this does not absolve you of your duty to search prior to posting. I'm sorry for the bluntness, but it's serious.

Okay, this was enough to get me to register just to respond. I'm sure "Sweetie" (condescending much?) can speak for her/himself but even though you've been on a forum since the dawn of time, are personally familiar with hundreds of thousands of posts, and surely have never repeated a topic in your seventhousandfivehundredplus posts it's still not "serious." It's like you and TXLady are sitting in front of a Whac-A-Mole game (mallet raised) waiting for someone to stick their head in your forum...WHAM!

A new poster may or may not know the lingo or correct phraseology to yield the perfect search results. Hey, I've got family members who've never even heard of a forum and I hope someone would be kind enough to either ignore their post, answer it, or direct them to the previous convo.

Sometimes a fellow human just needs a little help and shouldn't have to go by the ID newtothissopleasedon'tbeatool to prevent abuse.

[newtothis33]

Originally Posted by tsac

My company views everything the BB does including all calls.

I understand at this point that all call logs, sms including the content, browsing history and the text that is sent by the user on BB messenger can be viewed. However I was led to believe based on what has been written on this forum, that BES 4.1 does not log files or photos or the text that someone from an external BES server sends on BB messenenger. Am I wrong here?

[dc/dc]

Originally Posted by BerryBerryTall

Okay, this was enough to get me to register just to respond. I'm sure "Sweetie" (condescending much?) can speak for her/himself but even though you've been on a forum since the dawn of time, are personally familiar with hundreds of thousands of posts, and surely have never repeated a topic in your seventhousandfivehundredplus posts it's still not "serious." It's like you and TXLady are sitting in front of a Whac-A-Mole game (mallet raised) waiting for someone to stick their head in your forum...WHAM!

A new poster may or may not know the lingo or correct phraseology to yield the perfect search results. Hey, I've got family members who've never even heard of a forum and I hope someone would be kind enough to either ignore their post, answer it, or direct them to the previous convo.

Sometimes a fellow human just needs a little help and shouldn't have to go by the ID newtothissopleasedon'tbeatool to prevent abuse.

The reason I respond the way I do is to help you and your family and friends. If everyone searched before they posted, there would be no duplicate topics, and people wouldn't have to waste their time posting questions that have been answered before. Everyone's time is precious, including mine and newtothis', so as much time as I can save everyone, the better.

Also, for the record, this thread was not its own thread originally, but part of another thread that newtothis bumped, which is also bad form. I'm sorry you felt the need to join just to tell me off without knowing the facts, but I still love you and newtothis, and wish you both a Happy New Year.

[newtothis33]

Originally Posted by newtothis33

I understand at this point that all call logs, sms including the content, browsing history and the text that is sent by the user on BB messenger can be viewed. However I was led to believe based on what has been written on this forum, that BES 4.1 does not log files or photos or the text that someone from an external BES server sends on BB messenenger. Am I wrong here?

How about showing some love and answering the question then.

[colgra01]

Question: I have my own blackberry device that I pay for (and expense to my company), that runs corporate email on a BES server. I have also set up a gmail account on this device. Is the gmail running on BES or BIS? Are my gmail messages remaining private?? How about PIN to PIN messages? BBM? Thank you in advance for your help!

[Motorcycle Mama]

What does BES see; what can be tracked/logged? - Port3101.org : Your BES Connection

[johnling]

Originally Posted by BerryBerryTall

A new poster may or may not know the lingo or correct phraseology to yield the perfect search results.

Well said. I hate it when someone is asking for help, especially a new user, and they get jumped all over. That was not the intent of the forum founder. If you are not a mod don't try to be and if you are do the job right. That includes being friendly and helpful.

[juwaack68]

Originally Posted by colgra01

Question: I have my own blackberry device that I pay for (and expense to my company), that runs corporate email on a BES server. I have also set up a gmail account on this device. Is the gmail running on BES or BIS? Are my gmail messages remaining private?? How about PIN to PIN messages? BBM? Thank you in advance for your help!

Welcome to the forum. First things first - it's generally frowned upon to cross post. You asked this question here and in another thread as well as via PM. Please post once and be patient

Now, to answer your question, your gmail account is considered BIS email and cannot be read by a BES admin since it's not being processed by the BES or your company email server. Your device is communicating with your carrier and RIM directly.

However, PIN messaging, BBM and text messaging *can* all be monitored. They are not logged by default (at least with BES 4.1) but are very easily logged and read.

If you have concerns about what may be read via those communication methods, you should have your device removed from the BES.

[juwaack68]

Originally Posted by newtothis33

I understand at this point that all call logs, sms including the content, browsing history and the text that is sent by the user on BB messenger can be viewed. However I was led to believe based on what has been written on this forum, that BES 4.1 does not log files or photos or the text that someone from an external BES server sends on BB messenenger. Am I wrong here?

Files and photos sent/received via company email can be viewed since they are part of your mail system (Exchange, etc). This is not something the BES does, but rather the email server.

Photos sent/received via MMS cannot be viewed (at least with BES 4.1).

BBMessenger can be logged/monitored for both internal and external correspondence.

Also note that even if your BES server is down (broken, down for maintenance, whatever) you'll notice that BBM and PIN to PIN still work. That's because they do not rely on the BES to send/receive - they use RIM's infrastructure. When the BES comes back up, your device will send all the communication to the log files on the BES.

So don't assume since your company BES is down that something isn't being logged. Trust me, that's a very very wrong assumption.