The founder of Telegram has given up on telling people that their information is safe. On the matter of person privateness, Telegram’s founder has spoken. And we’re extra confused than ever.
Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov posted an account in his public Telegram channel Monday about his historical past of defending person knowledge from the Russian authorities. He ends the publish saying, “I stand for our customers it doesn’t matter what. Their proper to privateness is sacred. Now — greater than ever.”
He additionally tweeted a hyperlink to the publish that mentioned he had no regrets about his previous actions standing as much as the federal government and that he would “do it once more with out hesitation.”
However what Durov does not give on both Telegram or Twitter is an assurance that Telegram’s person knowledge is secure. It is doable that there’s a translation situation at play: Durov speaks each Russian and English, so maybe he used a Google translate-like device to assist compose the publish. However taking his posts at face worth, the statements “I stand for our customers” and “their proper to privateness is sacred” usually are not the identical factor as an unequivocal promise to not hand over knowledge to the Russian authorities, nor are they an assurance that person knowledge is secure from hacking and leaks.
Durov is the founder of what’s nonetheless the dominant social community in Russia, VK. Durov writes in his publish that within the early 2010s, the Russian authorities pressured him at hand over the info of Ukrainians opposing the Russia-friendly Ukrainian chief on the time. Durov refused, and ended up shedding management of VK and fleeing the nation (he is at present a French citizen). In the present day, VK is managed by the state.
He later based Telegram, a platform that has each one-to-one and group messages, in addition to public “channels,” that are methods folks can broadcast views and information, and which might act like boards. In 2018, the Russian authorities moved to shut down Telegram, however ended up dropping the initiative in 2020. In the present day, it is Russia’s second largest messaging platform after WhatsApp, with 38 million month-to-month energetic customers within the nation as of 2020.
So Durov does the truth is have a historical past of defending person knowledge, even at nice private threat. However specialists fear that the truth that Telegram just isn’t an end-to-end encrypted platform makes it susceptible. Customers should proceed to belief that Telegram will not give authorities regimes knowledge. It is also doable that Telegram’s infrastructure might be hacked, or person knowledge might be launched by somebody on the within.
Durov particularly calls out alleged issues by some that the actual fact of him beforehand residing in Russia may compromise Ukrainians’ safety. That’s presumably why he tells the story of the VK battle, and shares that he’s himself Ukrainian on his mom’s facet.
It is useful to listen to from the founder contemplating that Telegram has grow to be the dominant messaging platform for discussing the struggle in Ukraine and Russia, in keeping with specialists. However the publish does not go far sufficient to assuage issues about person privateness utterly.
