Telegram gives police more access to criminals’ data – DNyuz

Messaging app Telegram has updated its policies to allow it to share more data with government agencies, a major change for the platform that has been criticized for years for allowing drug trafficking, cybercrime and child abuse material to circulate on its channels.

Telegram Chief Executive Officer Pavel Durov said Monday that the platform had changed its privacy policy to reflect that it may release IP addresses and phone numbers of suspected criminals when it receives a warrant from relevant judicial authorities. Until now, Telegram’s policy has been to release data on suspected terrorists only upon court orders.

“We have made it clear that the IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate our rules may be disclosed to the relevant authorities in response to valid legal requests,” Durov wrote in a post on his Telegram channel.

The changes come a month after Durov was arrested in Paris on allegations that his platform was complicit in illegal activity on the app and refused to cooperate with authorities. Durov is currently out on bail and cannot leave France.

Durov had previously received strong support from right-wing free speech advocates, including X owner Elon Musk, for his longstanding refusal to give governments access to his platform’s data. The promise of data confidentiality has attracted everyone from organized crime cartels to political dissident groups in repressive regimes to the Russian and Ukrainian militaries to use Telegram.

The Russian-born tech entrepreneur said on Telegram that the platform’s search function was being “abused” to sell illegal goods, adding that a team of moderators had made the feature “much safer” in recent weeks.

Telegram will also publish more frequent transparency reports, detailing how often it has cooperated with authorities. The new privacy policy says this will happen quarterly instead of every six months.

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