Durov has once again reassured Telegram users that the app has not deviated from its core principles.
Key Notes
- Telegram only shares data when legally required, following strict verification protocols.
- Despite handling numerous data requests, Telegram maintains its commitment to privacy and freedom.
Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of popular messaging app Telegram, has shed light on some of the topics he touched on in a recent announcement. Earlier, the CEO spoke about policies that allow the app to share the IPs and phone addresses of criminals with authorities. However, with the criticism that followed the previous announcement, Durov has now attempted to clear the air.
He took to his Telegram channel, some moments ago, to explain that last week’s announcement does not mean that the app has taken abrupt action due to his recent run-in with the authorities. The statement reads:
“My previous post may have seemed to announce a major shift in how Telegram works. But in reality, little has changed.”
He noted that, since 2018, its privacy policies have allowed the firm to carry out these account disclosures, in “most countries.”
Durov explained further that the only condition there is to the disclosure is receiving “a properly formed legal request” to that effect. Once there is such a request, Telegram then verifies using its own best practices, before disclosing the IP addresses/phone numbers of these dangerous elements.
In the Wednesday explanation post, Durov cited data from Telegram’s Transparency Bot, a tool designed to provide users with the number of processed requests for data disclosures from authorities.
According to the bot, Telegram processed no less than 75 legal requests from Brazil in Q1 alone. That is, between January and March. For the second and third quarters, however, it processed 63 and 65 requests respectively.
In other regions, India, which represents Telegram’s largest market, had an abundance of requests in the last three quarters. According to the bot, Telegram satisfied an average of over 2,200 legal requests in each of the last quarters in India.
Telegram Has Not Changed, CEO Insists
Durov has once again reassured Telegram users that the app has not deviated from its core principles. However, as the firm has always made it a case to align with regulators across the globe, it has been intensifying efforts to “streamline and unify its privacy policy,”
He stressed that freedom and privacy remain the core tenets of their practices at Telegram. So, as long as regulations do not cross those lines, the app is more than willing to help authorities bring bad actors to book, he noted.
In late August, French authorities indicted the CEO on six charges related to illicit activity on the messenger. Although he was later released on bail, the CEO has since been updating users on the steps that Telegram is taking to combat illegalities on the platform.
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