Telegram will hand over user details to law enforcement

Last month we reported how Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was indicted on charges of complicity in the distribution of child sex abuse images, aiding organized crime, drug trafficking, fraud, and refusing lawful orders to give information to law enforcement.

Now, in a potentially related development, chat app Telegram has changed its privacy policy to reflect that it will share user’s IP addresses and telephone numbers if they are suspected of committing a crime.

“8.3. Law Enforcement Authorities

If Telegram receives a valid order from the relevant judicial authorities that confirms you’re a suspect in a case involving criminal activities that violate the Telegram Terms of Service, we will perform a legal analysis of the request and may disclose your IP address and phone number to the relevant authorities. If any data is shared, we will include such occurrences in a quarterly transparency report published at: https://t.me/transparency.”

Durov said the changes were made to discourage the criminal abuse of Telegram Search, a feature that is known to be used for buying and selling illegal goods. A dedicated team of moderators will use Artificial Intelligence to make the search safer. These moderators will also go over reports submitted by users through the @SearchReport bot about search terms that can be used to find illegal content.

All these measures together should discourage criminals. Telegram was set up to find friends and news, not to trade illegal goods, Durov emphasized:

“We won’t let bad actors jeopardize the integrity of our platform for almost a billion users.”

It should be clear that this is all a work in progress. The bot for the transparency reports is not yet ready for action, for example.

“This bot can give you a Telegram transparency report as per section 8.3 of the Telegram Privacy Policy.

We are updating this bot with current data. Please come back within the next few days.”

All in all, the future will show how adequate the moderators can act on reports and how easy, or difficult, it will be for law enforcement to submit a “valid order.”

But criminals are probably already looking for alternatives as we speak.

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