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Telegram is asking German users when to share information with law enforcement

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Telegram is asking German users when to share information with law enforcement

#1

Post by danhor »

Just went out to german users (translated with deepl):

We, the Telegram team, ask you to give us your opinion on how the data of German Telegram users may (or may not) be shared with German authorities, including the German police (BKA).

Telegram never shares information about your chats or contacts with third parties, including government agencies.

Nevertheless, to prevent misuse of our platform by terrorist groups, our current privacy policy since 2018 allows us to disclose IP addresses and phone numbers of terrorist suspects upon government request backed by a court order.

We're conducting this poll to find out if our German users support our current privacy policy or if they want to reduce or increase the number of cases where Telegram can potentially share data with authorities. We are providing three options to choose from.

OPTION 1: No changes. Telegram may continue to share IP addresses and phone numbers of terror suspects only based on a court decision. This option is already included in Telegram's current privacy policy.

OPTION 2: Upon request by German police authorities, Telegram may disclose IP addresses and phone numbers of suspects of serious crimes, even if not supported by a court decision. This option, if approved, would be completely new for Telegram and therefore requires a change to our privacy policy for users from Germany.

OPTION 3: Under no circumstances may Telegram share user information, including IP addresses and phone numbers of terror suspects. If this option is supported, Telegram will change its data structure and privacy policy for users from Germany.

Only users registered with German phone numbers can participate in the survey below. We have informed all Telegram users in Germany about this survey. The poll will remain open until September 5, 12:00 pm German time (UTC+2).

(Together with an attached poll)

Original: https://imgur.com/a/oHdxchb

Re: Telegram is asking German users when to share information with law enforcement

#2

Post by hnbad »

Note that they didn't provide options for "with a warrant" and "without a warrant", they only provided options for "with a warrant but only for suspected terrorism" and "for any serious crime but without a warrant". I suspect some users would vote for "any serious crime with a warrant" but will now vote for option 1 because they still want a warrant.

Re: Telegram is asking German users when to share information with law enforcement

#3

Post by izzytcp »

Hi, German here.

How about not storing any information at all? Nothing to give, problem solved. Just like Signal.

I seriously don’t understand why people use Telegram instead of Signal. Any reason! The app doesn’t solve any privacy problem, default chats are unencrypted, keeps personal info. App should be dead already or turned into a dating app because it’s clearly not seriously privacy fucused.

Re: Telegram is asking German users when to share information with law enforcement

#5

Post by nulbyte »

izzytcp wrote: post #3

Hi, German here. How about not storing any information at all? Nothing to give, problem solved. Just like Signal. I seriously don’t understand why people use Telegram instead of Signal. Any reason! The app doesn’t solve any privacy problem, default chats are unencrypted, keeps personal info. App should be dead already or turned into a dating app because it’s clearly not seriously privacy fucused.

Sounds like option 3: "If this option is supported, Telegram will change its data structure and privacy policy for users from Germany."

Re: Telegram is asking German users when to share information with law enforcement

#6

Post by neverrroot »

izzytcp wrote: post #3

Hi, German here. How about not storing any information at all? Nothing to give, problem solved. Just like Signal. I seriously don’t understand why people use Telegram instead of Signal. Any reason! The app doesn’t solve any privacy problem, default chats are unencrypted, keeps personal info. App should be dead already or turned into a dating app because it’s clearly not seriously privacy fucused.

Channels, Groups, it’s overall way better. But true, per default not as secure. Supports secure chats, that are secure.

Re: Telegram is asking German users when to share information with law enforcement

#7

Post by neverrroot »

traspler wrote: post #4

Is there anything special going on in Germany atm to prompt this? I‘m slighlty confused why they would do such a poll…

Yes, a lot of pressure from the leftist government. Many channels opposing the German Covid policy (one of a kind in Europe, very strict) are to be found in Telegram. As always, there is also some German right in Telegram. The government is officially after them, but the media/government has been painting all those opposing the Covid measures as right, so… it’s tricky.

Re: Telegram is asking German users when to share information with law enforcement

#8

Post by izzytcp »

neverrroot wrote: post #6
izzytcp wrote: post #3

Hi, German here. How about not storing any information at all? Nothing to give, problem solved. Just like Signal. I seriously don’t understand why people use Telegram instead of Signal. Any reason! The app doesn’t solve any privacy problem, default chats are unencrypted, keeps personal info. App should be dead already or turned into a dating app because it’s clearly not seriously privacy fucused.

Channels, Groups, it’s overall way better. But true, per default not as secure. Supports secure chats, that are secure.

Are channels and groups e2ee?

Re: Telegram is asking German users when to share information with law enforcement

#9

Post by isaacfrond »

izzytcp wrote: post #3

Hi, German here. How about not storing any information at all? Nothing to give, problem solved. Just like Signal. I seriously don’t understand why people use Telegram instead of Signal. Any reason! The app doesn’t solve any privacy problem, default chats are unencrypted, keeps personal info. App should be dead already or turned into a dating app because it’s clearly not seriously privacy fucused.

I switched from signal to Telegram because the iphone version was buggy as hell. That's why.

Re: Telegram is asking German users when to share information with law enforcement

#10

Post by cabirum »

traspler wrote: post #4

Is there anything special going on in Germany atm to prompt this? I‘m slighlty confused why they would do such a poll…

Germany repeatedly threanened to ban or remove Telegram from app stores if they ignore requests to delete channels or to provide some data. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/story/germany-tel...
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