Telegram, one of the world’s most populist messengers, continues to change its user policy not in favour of anonymity. According to its owner, Pavel Durov, the messenger will now provide data on users at the request of law enforcement agencies, Komersant ukrainskyi
reports
In his channel, Durov wrote that many people abused the messenger’s search function, which is much more powerful than search in other services. This allowed them to find, offer, buy and sell illegal goods.
Now, the Telegram team has improved the search so much that it has become absolutely safe, and it is now impossible to come across anything dangerous.
“💪 Over the past few weeks, a special team of moderators has used artificial intelligence to make searching on Telegram much safer. All the problematic content we found in search is no longer available. If you still manage to find something dangerous or illegal on Telegram, please let us know,”
– durov wrote.
However, the improvements to Telegram do not end there. From now on, Durov will be giving out information to the authorities about anyone they ask. This includes phone numbers and IP addresses.
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“🚫 To further discourage criminals from abusing Telegram search, we’ve updated our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to ensure they are consistent across the board. We have made it clear that IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate our rules can be provided to the relevant authorities upon legitimate requests,”
– durov added.
Telegram is designed to find friends and discover news, not to promote illegal goods, the Telegram owner concluded his post.
Previously, Pavel Durov was known for his tough stance on refusing to cooperate with governments in providing access to encrypted user data. He has repeatedly stated that he will not hand over encryption keys to any authorities, which has drawn criticism from some governments and organisations. This stance allowed Telegram to remain one of the most secure messengers, but at the same time created challenges for law enforcement agencies in the fight against cybercrime.
However, everything changed after Durov’s arrest in France. When he was released after several days in custody, Durov immediately changed the privacy policy of the messenger. It started with the fact that the messenger started responding to complaints about illegal content.
The Ukrainian authorities have also been looking at the messenger for a long time and have often criticised it. The police constantly complain that drugs are being sold on Telegram, and the military complain that it is controlled by Russian intelligence services. Finally, last week, Ukrainian officials and military personnel were banned from using the messenger.