In its revised Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, Telegram states that it may share the IP addresses and phone numbers of rule breakers with law enforcement upon "valid legal request." The update comes a month after the Telegram CEO was arrested in France.
Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, announced the policy updates on his
Telegram channel yesterday. According to Durov, criminals have hijacked Telegram Search (which lets you find people,
channels, and bots) to create an illegal marketplace of goods.
“Telegram Search is meant for finding friends and discovering news, not for promoting illegal goods. We won't let bad actors jeopardize the integrity of our platform for almost a billion users,” Durov explained the crackdown. Telegram will share phone numbers and
IP addresses of offenders based on "valid legal requests" across the world. To determine if the legal request is valid, Telegram will “conduct a legal analysis.” The company promises to publish quarterly transparency reports that document every legal request it fulfills.
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