It was the most dramatic policy shift yet announced by Telegram's chief executive officer Pavel Durov, which paves the way for the messaging app to disclose more data about users to governments. In so doing, Telegram has ushered in a sea change in its stance on user privacy and data protection, having long been praised for stringent security measures coupled with the least amount of shared data.
In a news conference held on Monday, he explained how it has been compelled to make this move due to the growing pressure on it from various international governmental bodies. He underlined that such a step was not taken easily and was the result of long and hard negotiations. Durov underlined that the aim is to balance adherence to governmental regulatory requirements with keeping user privacy intact as far as possible.
"We have always defended the right of our users to privacy and freedom of expression against undue interference," Durov said. "At the same time, nobody can live in complete isolation from society. This change balances the sometimes conflicting demands of these responsibilities."
The information on this data that is to be shared entails facts the law enforcement agencies require and find quite essential in the fight against crime and terrorism. Durov added that this was not going to be a broad-based policy on data sharing, it would be bound by strict rules, and such shall be requiring legal warrants or high-placed justifications for requests of information.
Reactions among users, however, have been divided: some praise the company's pragmatism in front of legal pressures and acknowledge that grave crimes must be fought, while others fear this may be the slippery slope toward greater surveillance and infringement of privacy.
The cybersecurity community has also chipped in, with some analysts going as far as to suggest this could dent Telegram's previously stellar record on privacy. Others say it is inevitable and points to the increasing demands from legislatures on tech companies to cooperate in matters regarding national security.
With over 500 million monthly active users across the world, Telegram has often been a haven for people seeking secure ways of communicating. The app uses end-to-end encryption in its secret chats, which are inaccessible to any third party. This new direction, however, might have caused some changes in how users view and use the app.
He then went on to reassure users that core things that make Telegram secure would not change, and the company would keep fighting for privacy rights and against unwarranted requests for data.
"We are committed to transparency," Durov said. "We will regularly publish transparency reports about the requests we get and how we process them. This way, our users will know what's going on with their data and be confident that we will treat it responsibly."
The move has started a series of discussions and debates on various social media, to which both privacy advocates and government officials have contributed. Which direction this turn in policy will take user trust, not to mention the secure messaging-service landscape, remains to be seen.
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Author: Emily Collins
