Re: RIM safe from the NSA?
Am I sure? Yes. Yes I am.
Canada does not have secret laws enacted by a President's Executive Authority without oversight. The relevant Canadian law protecting an individuals information is called PIPEDA and there's the full act here:
http://www.priv.gc.ca/leg_c/court_14_e.asp
The 10 principles of PIPEDA are:
Accountability
Identifying Purposes
Consent
Limiting Collection
Limiting use, disclosure and retention
Accuracy
Safeguards
Openness
Individual Access
Provide Recourse
Which means (and I'll use small words for you) if they use your personal info, you have to have authorized its use beforehand. If not, you can go after them for a large amount of cash. There are no secret legal back doors, or government taps that can be activated with a letter such as in the states.
This does not mean NSA cannot brute force a RIM algorithm, but it does mean there is no direct hand over of info from a Canadian company to government sources. We do things a wee bit better than our paranoid and delusional cousins to the south.
Several companies have opened in Canada specifically because personal info is protected under the law. SilentCircle is one of them.