Telegram admitted in cooperation with the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation

The messenger of Pavel Durov used to give out data of users at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office and the Investigative Committee, and now the FSB of the Russian Federation will also disclose the data of terror suspects.
28.08.2018
Kommersant
Origin source
Blocked in Russia by decision of the court messenger Telegram updated the privacy policy. According to the changes, the company can disclose to the special services the data of users suspected of terrorism, namely the IP-address and telephone number.

Telegram by court decision can disclose to the special services the IP address and phone number of the user, if he is suspected of terrorism, follows from the updated privacy policy of the messenger. "At the moment there were no such situations. If this happens, information on this will be published in the https://t.me/transparency channel in a report published every six months, "the document says. Later, the founder of Telegram Pavel Durov explained that the messenger updated the privacy policy on August 14 in connection with the new regulations of the EU Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, according to him, the new policy does not concern Russia and the treatment of Russian special services will not be considered due to the blocking of Telegram in Russia.

Changes in the privacy policy have already been taken place in Roskomnadzor. The head of the department, Alexander Zharov, told RIA Novosti that he "welcomes the decision of the messenger's administration" and regards it as "the first response from the Telegram management to the requirements of Russian anti-terrorism legislation after a long silence."

However, Roskomnadzor will stop blocking Telegram only on the decision of the Federal Security Service (FSB), so far the blockage will continue, Deputy Head of the Supervisory Authority Vadim Subbotin said. According to him, the messenger should contact the FSB, as her appeal to Roskomnadzor was the basis for filing a lawsuit on blocking, and to offer the service interaction. "There are certain requirements that are established by law and by-laws and that are required to be fulfilled by providing the FSB with certain data to the authorized body. In what this order is done - is also established. If the FSB arranges or they understand that the Russian legislation is being implemented, then their decision will be the basis for us to refuse blocking the messenger, "Mr. Subbotin said (quoted by RIA Novosti).

For each user separately, a judicial authorization is required. If it is issued by an independent court on the basis of an examination of all the circumstances of the case, this interference in the right to respect for private life may be justified, according to Damir Gainutdinov, lawyer of the international human rights group Agora, representing the interests of Telegram in Russian courts: "The rules apply to users worldwide. There are countries in which courts can be trusted. " But the Russian authorities want full permanent access to all correspondence, the lawyer continues. "Obviously, in the case of our country, judicial approval does not mean anything and is not a guarantee. The court in this situation simply laying between the FSB and the service. Therefore, I hope, the Russian authorities will not give anything away. " Mr. Gainutdinov also draws attention to the phrase that "at the moment there were no such situations," and plans to publish Transparency Reports: "This allows us to hope that the society will be aware of such requests and the reasons for their execution and rejection."

On March 20, the Supreme Court recognized as legitimate the order of the FSB to provide keys to decrypt messages to Telegram, rejecting the claim of lawyers of the international human rights organization "Agora" representing the interests of the company in court. At the same time, Roskomnadzor notified the messenger about the need to provide the FSB with the necessary data within 15 days, but Telegram refused to do so. On April 13 Tagansky district court of Moscow decided to immediately block access to Telegram resources, having satisfied the suit of Roskomnadzor. Since April 16, the telecom operators have blocked the IP-addresses, which allow Telegram to function according to the instructions of Roskomnadzor. The registry of banned information contained up to 20 million IP-addresses, some of which were subsequently unblocked. As of August 28, about 3.8 million IP-addresses remain blocked.

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