Responsibility
BlackBerry’s business is based on trust, a trust maintained and grown by requiring our people, our suppliers and our vendors to conduct business in an ethical, socially responsible manner that meets and exceeds our customers’ expectations. We are committed to strengthening our communities and protecting our environment.
Responsible Business Practices
BlackBerry is committed to operating our business consistent with the highest ethical standards and has adopted policies and practices that require the same of our business partners.
BlackBerry has a long-standing commitment to privacy and is a global leader in secure and privacy-enhanced mobile communications. The commitment to privacy is a core company value--measured not only by compliance with both established and evolving regulatory frameworks but also in the company’s continued development of new technologies and adherence to privacy and data security best practices, including compliance with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation. BlackBerry incorporates the principle of Privacy by Design into every BlackBerry® product and service. BlackBerry supports the universal right to privacy and through the BlackBerry Privacy Policy describes BlackBerry’s practices with respect to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information. Abiding by these commitments in every jurisdiction in which the company operates underscores BlackBerry’s position as a global leader in privacy and data security.
Content filtering refers to the ability to restrict access to inappropriate and/or illegal Internet–based content. While often applied in the home or in a business to filter inappropriate content such as malware or pornography, content filtering requirements are generally established by national governments or voluntarily in many countries by Internet service providers, including telecom carriers. BlackBerry is not an Internet service provider. Like our competitors, we support our carrier partners around the world to meet their obligations or commitments by working with them to ensure the availability of appropriate content filtering solutions for BlackBerry smartphones.
To ensure that every employee understands applicable laws, BlackBerry policies and what it means to behave ethically in their roles, BlackBerry created the BlackBerry Code of Business Standards and Principles. BlackBerry employees are expected to comply with these standards and principles and apply them as they perform their daily work. Any employee, contractor, customer, business partner or vendor may use a confidential hotline, BlackBerry EthicsLink, to ask a question or report an ethics or compliance concern.
Lawful Access
Lawful access is a request by national or international law enforcement authorities to telecom carriers or technology suppliers for access to user communications for the purposes of law enforcement, investigation or prosecution as duly requested under the laws of a jurisdiction. A common requirement around the world, lawful access may be required for reasons such as investigating, solving or prosecuting crime, or for ensuring national security.
Like others in our industry, from time to time, BlackBerry may receive requests from legal authorities for lawful access assistance. We are guided by appropriate legal processes and publicly disclosed lawful access principles in this regard, as we balance any such requests against our priority of maintaining privacy rights of our users. We do not speculate or comment upon individual matters of lawful access. Additionally, BlackBerry does not provide special deals for individual countries, and we clearly stipulate that BlackBerry has no ability to support the access of BlackBerry® Enterprise Server (BES) / Unified Endpoint Manager communications as only our enterprise clients have control over the encryption keys for these communications. BlackBerry is committed to operating its business in accordance with recognized industry standards of business and social responsibility in the markets we serve. BlackBerry will continue to evaluate the markets in which we operate, we will engage and express our views to government and we will continue to operate in a principled manner.
- The carriers’ capabilities are limited to the strict context of lawful access and national security requirements as governed by the country’s judicial oversight and rules of law.
- The carriers’ capabilities must be technology- and vendor-neutral, allowing no greater access to BlackBerry consumer services than the carriers and regulators already impose on BlackBerry’s competitors and other similar communications technology companies.
- No changes to the security architecture for BlackBerry Enterprise Server customers since, contrary to any rumors, the security architecture is the same around the world and BlackBerry truly has no ability to provide its customers’ encryption keys.
Also driving BlackBerry’s position is the fact that strong encryption is a fundamental commercial requirement for any country to attract and maintain international business anyway and similarly strong encryption is currently used pervasively in traditional VPNs on both wired and wireless networks in order to protect corporate and government communications. - BlackBerry maintains a consistent global standard for lawful access requirements that does not include special deals for specific countries.
- BlackBerry will not provide lawful access assistance to any country that is on the Global Affairs Canada Export / Import Restrictions list.
Responsible Sourcing
BlackBerry is committed to ensuring that the management of our procurement activities is socially and environmentally responsible.
Supplier Code of Conduct
The BlackBerry Supplier Code of Conduct (‘Supplier Code’) details the ethical, labor, health and safety, and environmental standards that BlackBerry expects its suppliers of goods and services to comply with. Our Supplier Code is consistent with international norms and common industry standards.
Conflict Minerals
BlackBerry is concerned about humanitarian and environmental abuses related to the illegal mining, transportation and trade of minerals in conflict-affected regions of the world, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its neighbouring countries. We are particularly concerned that such illegal activities play a role in fueling armed conflict and violence in these regions. BlackBerry does not support the use of minerals that are illegally mined, transported or traded, nor metals derived from such minerals. As evidenced by BlackBerry’s long-standing support for related industry and multi-stakeholder efforts, it supports the continued sourcing of such minerals from conflict-affect areas when it can be done in a verifiably responsible manner.
BlackBerry’s Responsible Minerals Policy is based on the relevant elements of the Model Supply Chain policy as contained within the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas (the “OECD Guidance”). The latest version of BlackBerry’s policy is posted here.
BlackBerry established the framework for its responsible mineral sourcing management systems based on our participation in industry and multi-stakeholder conflict minerals efforts, including those of the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI - formerly the Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative). We monitor industry’s growing capacity and maturity for verifiable responsible minerals sourcing along with the identification of additional risks which would inform further refinement of our due diligence processes. Multiple mechanisms are in place to allow reporting of supply chain issues concerning conflict minerals, including BlackBerry’s established EthicsLink process.
For more details on BlackBerry’s due diligence efforts, refer to our latest SEC Form SD and Conflict Minerals Report, which includes a list of the smelters and refiners reported by BlackBerry’s suppliers.
Supplier Diversity
The BlackBerry Supplier Diversity program works to strengthen local economies and support the diverse businesses we rely on to deliver products and services. BlackBerry seeks to include more businesses owned by women, ethnic minorities, LGBTs, Canadian aboriginals and veterans into our vendor base. By partnering with these diverse suppliers, we support economic development, generate innovation and increase competition in the communities we serve.
View the BlackBerry Supplier Diversity Policy (PDF)
Human Rights
BlackBerry has always held itself and its employees to the highest standards when it comes to our respect for the rights and dignity of all people. In line with this belief, we have developed a Human Rights Policy.
While BlackBerry’s Code of Business Standards & Principles remains the capstone document that communicates our overall commitment to human rights for all our operations and supply chain at a high level, the Human Rights Policy provides the necessary detail to support the implementation of existing and new procedures for BlackBerry operations. The BlackBerry Supplier Code of Conduct supports implementation throughout BlackBerry’s vendor base.
Human Trafficking and Forced Labor
BlackBerry supports the principle of freely chosen employment and explicitly prohibits the use of slave labor in any of its forms, including human trafficking, forced labor and child labor.
View BlackBerry’s most recent statement regarding Modern Slavery (PDF)
Corporate Responsibility Report
Review the 2015/2016 BlackBerry Corporate Responsibility Report.