This year Telegram has fulfilled more than a dozen law enforcement data requests from the U.S., potentially disclosing the IP address or phone number of more than one hundred users, according to the social media platform.
The news is the first glimpse into Telegram’s policy shift around providing data to law enforcement agencies. Historically, Telegram has gained a reputation for not cooperating with the authorities on criminal investigations. After the arrest of Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov by French police in August, the company changed its privacy policy to expand data requests from only applying to terror cases to crimes more broadly.
“Transparency report for the period 01.01.24–30.09.24,” the report, delivered by Telegram’s transparency bot, reads. “Fulfilled requests from the United States of America for IP address and/or phone number: 14. Affected users: 108.”
Durov also published some other data request figures on his own Telegram channel related to different countries.
“In Brazil, we disclosed data for 75 legal requests in Q1 (January-March) 2024, 63 in Q2, and 65 in Q3. In India, our largest market, we satisfied 2461 legal requests in Q1, 2151 in Q2, and 2380 in Q3,” he wrote on Wednesday.
Some of these requests do appear to have happened before the arrest of Telegram’s CEO. French authorities arrested Durov in part because of the company’s unwillingless to provide user data in a child abuse investigation.
But in the wake of the arrest, Telegram changed its privacy policy to read “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.” Previously, the policy only specifically mentioned terror cases, and said “So far, this has never happened.”
Over the past few weeks, 404 Media has queried Telegram’s transparency data bot most days. In mid-September, the bot said “Please come back later. This bot is currently under maintenance.” Then from around late-September until yesterday, the bot said “We are updating this bot with current data. Please come back within the next few days.”
As 404 Media previously found, in February a judge in the Northern District of California signed an order granting an application for a search warrant for data related to a Telegram account. The title of the case indicates the investigation is related to alleged violations of child abuse image laws.
When 404 Media asked the FBI for comment last month after Telegram’s policy change, the agency declined to comment.
