Russia Wants to Make an Example of Telegram
Russia's government wants to decrypt.
Photographer: Carl CourtEvery government involved in today's cyberwars has some interest in surveilling the users of messenger apps; but more oppressive states don't bother to hide it. Telegram, the encrypted messenger in Russia, recently received a letter from the country's domestic intelligence service, the FSB that highlights this disparity -- and the dangers of trusting tech companies' privacy-related assurances.
Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, published the FSB letter on Vkontakte, the popular Russian Facebook clone that he also founded but no longer controls. In the document, helpfully translated into broken English because the company behind Telegram is registered in the U.K., the intelligence service tells the messenger that it is obliged under a Russian law passed last year to hand over keys allowing the government to decrypt any communications transmitted over it -- and is already in violation of the law for not having done so. This is the same law that threatens Facebook and Twitter with closure in Russia next year until they start storing Russians' personal data inside the country; Twitter has promised to localize its operation by mid-2018, Facebook hasn't told the Russian authorities anything yet.