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In the few months since it said it would work harder to comply with authorities, Telegram has been carrying out thousands of law enforcement data requests, according to data from the messaging app's latest transparency report.
A quick check with Telegram's Transparency Reports bot, which has a "verified" checkmark beside its name, reveals that Telegram shared "IP addresses and/or phone numbers" of Telegram users with US law enforcement across 14 fulfilled requests between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 of last year, impacting 108 Telegram users.
But after Sept. 30, the number of fulfilled US law enforcement requests spiked dramatically; 886 US law enforcement requests were fulfilled between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 last year, affecting 2,145 users, bringing the yearly total to 900 fulfilled US requests impacting 2,253 users.
This surge in fulfilled requests, reported by 404 Media on Monday, reflects Telegram's September promise that it would hand over users' IP addresses and phone numbers associated with accounts to police upon request to "further deter criminals from abusing Telegram Search," billionaire Telegram CEO Pavel Durov wrote at the time. Before that, Telegram had claimed that it had never received a court order declaring a Telegram user to be a suspected terrorist, meaning it never had to disclose such users' information to authorities.
A few thousand US users a year out of Telegram's estimated 950 million users globally might not seem like a lot to some. But the more than 6,000% increase in fulfilled US requests is a sign the company is more open to working with law enforcement than before.
That policy change came a few months after Durov was briefly detained in France over allegations that Telegram has been complicit in various crimes because it has not adequately helped authorities investigate child sexual abuse material, narcotics, and other crimes by sharing suspect data. Telegram, however, rejected the suggestion that Durov was personally responsible for user activity on Telegram and said Telegram is following EU laws. Shortly after Durov's arrest, the CEO claimed that "growing pains"—caused in part by a growing user base—"made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform."
Telegram has been repeatedly criticized for being a hotbed of malware-as-a-service bots, phishing kits, and deepfake software. Scammers also frequently DM Telegram users on the app in phishing attempts, posing as Telegram or other entities like news outlets or hiring managers. More recently, there have also been reports that cybercriminals are releasing fake Telegram Premium apps that are actually malware that swipes your Telegram login credentials.
From a data security standpoint, it's worth noting that you could use a VPN to conceal your IP address when creating and using an account, and Telegram conversations are not end-to-end encrypted by default. But if you want to enable Telegram's encrypted messaging feature (as security expert Chelsea Manning would recommend), you'll have to enable "Secret Chats."
On the iOS app, you can do this by navigating to your Contacts tab. Then, long-press on the person's name you want to start an E2E encrypted conversation with. Then, select "Start Secret Chat" on the pop-up menu. Secret Chats are only visible on the device you started them on, though, so keep that in mind if you also use Telegram on your Mac or PC.