Blackberry Corporation

Steven Wellington

Neil Patrick Adams

Roger Paul Bowman

A system and method for a privacy mode are disclosed. A trusted execution environment and general operating system that has restricted access to the trusted execution environment are maintained on a processor. A privacy mode command indicating either one of a first value and a second value is received. A peripheral control interface, which is communicatively coupled to the trusted execution environment and otherwise communicatively isolated from the general operating system, is disabled when the privacy mode enable indicator has the first value and is enabled when the privacy mode enable indicator has the second value. An associated peripheral is disabled from providing signals to processing circuits when the peripheral control interface is in the disabled state and enabled to provide signals to processing circuits when the peripheral control interface is in the enabled state.

Verified privacy mode devices

A method at an electronic device having at least one slot to receive a removable security module, the method including detecting coupling of the security module to the electronic device; sending a challenge to the security module; receiving a response from the security module; checking whether the response is valid at the electronic device; and providing a signal based on results of the checking, wherein only a defined number of security modules are configured to provide a valid response per slot or for each security module type at the electronic device. Further, a method for preventing functionality on an electronic device, the method including replacing a valid security module coupled to the electronic device with a dummy security module; detecting uncoupling of the dummy security module; and providing an alert.

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Kanata, Canada

Steven Wellington