Messaging apps these days boast end-to-end encryption (E2EE), which means that only you and the people you chat with can see your messages. Despite the privacy feature, popular messaging apps such as WhatsApp find themselves involved in data leak controversies anyway.
Telegram also claims to protect user privacy through E2EE, saying that they share no data with third parties including governments. However, a new report from German tech blog Der Spiegel claims otherwise.
The blog says that Telegram has shared personal user data with Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office involving terror and child abuse suspects. Data requests for other criminal cases, however, have more or less been ignored.
For years, Telegram has maintained in the FAQ section of its website that “To this day, we have disclosed 0 bytes of user data to third parties, including governments.” However, section 8.3 of Telegram’s privacy policy says that they will release users’ IP addresses and phone numbers to authorities if they are presented with a warrant on terrorism-related charges.
But despite promising biannual reports on disclosure activities, Telegram has never really done so.
Telegram has not revealed how much user data the company has shared with governments and it has not responded to a request for comment yet.
