Telegram to allow police more access to criminals’ data

Platform’s CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France last month over the refusal to hand over data to government authorities.

Messaging app Telegram has tweaked its policies to be able to share more data with government authorities — a major shift for the platform that has faced years of criticism for letting drug trafficking, cybercrime and child sexual abuse material run rampant on its channels.

Telegram's Chief Executive Officer Pavel Durov said Monday the platform had changed its privacy policy to reflect it may disclose IP addresses and phone numbers of suspected criminals when it gets an order from relevant judicial authorities. Up until now, Telegram's policy was only to disclose data on suspected terrorists upon a court order.

"We've made it clear that the IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate our rules can be disclosed to relevant authorities in response to valid legal requests," Durov wrote in a message on his Telegram channel.

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