Telegram will share personal information with law enforcement agencies

If someone might be involved in criminal activities that violate Telegram’s Terms of Service, the platform will share that user’s IP address and phone number with law enforcement agencies, if they submit a legal request for information.

Founder and CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov announced on Monday that the company has updated its privacy policy.

“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,” it currently says.

Previously, Telegram would only share these details with law enforcement authorities if someone was suspected to be involved with terrorism.

In addition, Telegram has improved its search feature, which was frequently used to promote illegal goods and services.

“Over the last few weeks, a dedicated team of moderators, leveraging AI, has made Telegram Search much safer,” Durov states on his Telegram account. He continues by saying that ‘problematic content’ is no longer accessible via Telegram Search.

According to Durov, these measures should discourage criminals and put the emphasis on what Telegram Search was meant for: finding friends and discovering news.

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

These changes are implemented just a few weeks after Durov got arrested in France. The French authorities arrested him because his platform failed to respond to investigation requests into cybercrime and financial fraud on Telegram.

After four days in prison and paying a € 5 million bail, the founder and CEO was released from custody. However, Durov still isn’t allowed to leave the country because the investigation is still ongoing.

The latest changes to Telegram’s privacy policy are already being questioned. Some experts believe Telegram is going to cooperate with totalitarian regimes if dissidents share their political views on the platform, exposing them to political prosecution.

“Telegram’s marketing as a platform that would resist government demands attracted people that wanted to feel safe sharing their political views in places like Russia, Belarus, and the Middle East. Many are now scrutinizing Telegram’s announcement with a basic question in mind: does this mean the platform will start cooperating with authorities in repressive regimes?,” says John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, to the BBC.