- France against encrypted messages, Durov defends privacy
- Durov says Telegram hasn’t handed over a single byte of user data for 12 years
- Also, Durov says Telegram would rather leave the market than violate privacy principles
Telegram against backdoor, France against encrypted messages, Durov defends privacy – saying that leaving backdoors for police investigations and keeping the user’s privacy at the same time is just technically impossible. He says the service has not transferred a single byte of user messages in the 12 years of the service’s existence and would rather leave the market than violate this principle.
France Seeks to Increase Security at the Cost of Freedom and Privacy — Again
It’s worth recalling that the French government recently detained Pavel Durov, bringing a series of serious accusations against him regarding his service, Telegram.
According to Durov, he refused to admit guilt or hand over encryption keys to French authorities so they could access the contents of user messages, some of which may involve criminal actors or fraudsters.
Also, a proposal in the National Assembly to require such access was rejected, but has now resurfaced — pushed again by the Paris Police Prefect, who is once more demanding that backdoors be implemented to help law enforcement trace offenders and obtain evidence when necessary.
Pavel Durov commented on this in detail in a message on Telegram. Among the key ethical points, the following stand out:
- The principles of Pavel Durov, and of the Telegram service more broadly, are based on user privacy as the highest priority.
- According to Durov, this principle has not been violated once in 12 years, and it is far more important than any market or the risk of losing one.
- In accordance with current EU legislation, if presented with an official court order, the company may disclose IP addresses and phone numbers of suspects — but never the contents of their messages.
Regarding the technical aspects:
- Creating and handing over encryption keys or building backdoors is technically incompatible with Telegram’s privacy principles.
- Furthermore, it is technically useless, as criminals would simply switch to encrypted connections or VPN services. This would not make them easier to track — quite the opposite, it would only complicate surveillance efforts.
Conclusion
Of course, Pavel Durov’s statements cannot be independently verified. However, he is at least attempting to demonstrate a consistent and unequivocal position on the issue of privacy.
On a personal note, the French government’s request is, to put it mildly, questionable. There is little point in debating whether such backdoors could be abused — this is self-evident.
But even from a technical perspective, those backdoors will inevitably be discovered by malicious actors. In the end, we could find ourselves in a situation where such measures not only fail to help law enforcement track real criminals but instead expand the tools available to bad actors and place users at double risk.
