- Telegram has been disclosing IP addresses and phone numbers of criminal accounts since 2018, in compliance with legal requests
- The policy affects multiple countries, including Brazil and India, with thousands of requests processed each year
- CEO Pavel Durov emphasizes that there has been no major recent change in Telegram’s disclosure policy
The process of disclosing IP addresses and phone numbers by Telegram has been in place “long before last week,” says CEO Pavel Durov.
Telegram Shows Ip Addresses and Phone Numbers
According to the founder and CEO Pavel Durov, the instant messaging app Telegram, a crypto-friendly app, has been able to reveal IP addresses for several years. Today, Durov addressed his recent post regarding the disclosure of IP addresses and phone numbers of accounts involved in criminal activities on his Telegram channel.
“My previous post may have come across as an announcement of a significant change in how Telegram operates. But in reality, not much has changed,” Durov stated in his latest message to his followers. The disclosure of information from Telegram accounts was already in place “long before last week.”
According to Durov, Telegram has been able to disclose the IP addresses and phone numbers of criminals to authorities since 2018, in accordance with its privacy policies in “most countries.”
He explained that: “Whenever we received a properly formatted legal request through the relevant communication channels, we verified it and disclosed the IP addresses/phone numbers of criminals. The procedure had been in place long before last week.”
Durov mentioned the data from Telegram’s Transparency Bot, designed to inform users of the number of data disclosure requests processed by authorities.
“For example, in Brazil, we disclosed data for 75 legal requests in the first quarter (January-March) of 2024, 63 in the second, and 65 in the third quarter. In India, our largest market, we fulfilled 2,461 legal requests in the first quarter, 2,151 in the second, and 2,380 in the third,” Durov clarified.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Telegram’s policy regarding the disclosure of IP addresses and phone numbers of criminal accounts has been active since 2018, complying with local laws.
Pavel Durov clarified that there have been no recent changes in how the company handles such legal requests, confirming the transparency of the process.
