There is little doubt that BlackBerry revolutionised communications technology.

The smartphone became addictive by simplifying communication with its QWERTY keyboard, push e-mail and messenger functions. It now has a worldwide user base of 41million.

But that might be about to change.

Despite its successes, BlackBerry's Canadian maker, Research in Motion (RIM), has run into a spot of trouble. It narrowly avoided a ban in India last week - allegedly by making a deal with the government - and there are more than likely to be bans in the United Arab Emirates, China and Saudi Arabia.

France has pricked up its ears and the German government has reportedly urged staff not to use BlackBerries and, also reportedly, the European Union Commission has rejected it completely.

The issue that has created not only a mammoth drop in RIM's share price but worries among "CrackBerry" addicts that it might be banned in their countries is encryption. This is the scrambling of Black Berry messages, e-mails and Facebook conversations so that governments and cellphone network companies can't access users' information. Most cellphone operators, including RIM, use encryption to secure information, such as Internet banking passwords.

This encryption can be reversed but, unlike with other operators, after BlackBerry data is encrypted it is sent to offshore servers and therefore cannot be tracked locally.

Professor Rossouw von Solms, an Internet security expert at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, said although most BlackBerry users use the device for work and social purposes, there is a security risk - and an advantage to governments having access to this information.

"It might not have an immediate impact in South Africa, but everyone is watching what RIM is doing in India. It seems that RIM made a deal with the Indian government so that certain information can be decrypted."

RIM claims it does not have the keys to decode or decrypt the encrypted data.

"In fact, RIM does not possess a master key, nor does any back door exist in the system that would allow RIM or any third party, under any circumstances, to gain access to encrypted corporate information," the company said. But there are noises that there might be loopholes.

"If the rumours are true and the Indian government is allowed access, even to some services, it will certainly encourage other countries to want it too," said Von Solms.

And local discussions on access to information and the media "are the first waves of the government starting to monitor communication".

Another concern is VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), Skype and Google telephone conversations over the Internet.

"It is part of a very old discussion," said Von Solms. "Governments say that, to protect citizens, they must know what is going on, but most of us think we have a right to privacy. But in other parts of the world those rights are not as prominent.

"In the next few months, this issue will become very interesting."