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Telegram Loses Supreme Court Appeal In Russia, Must Hand Over Encryption Keys (bloomberg.com)
Telegram has lost a bid before Russia's Supreme Court to block security services from getting access to users' data, giving President Vladimir Putin a victory in his effort to keep tabs on electronic communications. Bloomberg reports: Supreme Court Judge Alla Nazarova on Tuesday rejected Telegram's appeal against the Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB spy agency which last year asked the company to share its encryption keys. Telegram declined to comply and was hit with a fine of $14,000. Communications regulator Roskomnadzor said Telegram now has 15 days to provide the encryption keys. Telegram, which is in the middle of an initial coin offering of as much as $2.55 billion, plans to appeal the ruling in a process that may last into the summer, according to the company's lawyer, Ramil Akhmetgaliev. Any decision to block the service would require a separate court ruling, the lawyer said.
Putin signed laws in 2016 on fighting terrorism, which included a requirement for messaging services to provide the authorities with means to decrypt user correspondence. Telegram challenged an auxiliary order by the Federal Security Service, claiming that the procedure doesn't involve a court order and breaches constitutional rights for privacy, according to documents. The security agency, known as the FSB, argued in court that obtaining the encryption keys doesn't violate users' privacy because the keys by themselves aren't considered information of restricted access. Collecting data on particular suspects using the encryption would still require a court order, the agency said.
Putin signed laws in 2016 on fighting terrorism, which included a requirement for messaging services to provide the authorities with means to decrypt user correspondence. Telegram challenged an auxiliary order by the Federal Security Service, claiming that the procedure doesn't involve a court order and breaches constitutional rights for privacy, according to documents. The security agency, known as the FSB, argued in court that obtaining the encryption keys doesn't violate users' privacy because the keys by themselves aren't considered information of restricted access. Collecting data on particular suspects using the encryption would still require a court order, the agency said.
Telegram has been launched by brothers Durov's, Nikolai and Pavel. They previously launched Russian FB equivalent VK, which was "socialized" by the owners that are supporters of Putin. As a response, secure and private Telegram has been launched. So, they lost a case in Russia, and now privacy is compromised. I have to make a bet that their next product will be the developement of decentralized communication protocols that cant be subpoenaed or litigated. Such protocols already exist, albeit not yet well scalable. However, at the very moment brothers Durovs are putting the company for IPO, and it will be interesting to see how will they handle the situation.
Nieve much? Seriously what is with this article? You're in Russia, expecting privacy?
Why in the hell is yet another service built like this? It's like building a shower in the middle of a mall and telling people not to look. Don't put the damn shower in a mall and stop using tech that requires centralized encryption. Why is this so hard to understand?
And this has nothing to even do with Russia or Putin. Thanks to the five-eyes, many countries have implemented similar laws.
Furries live on Telegram. Do the russians really want access to hundreds of thousands of erotic RP logs and huge dicked furry art? Perhaps Putin is a closet furry... @yiffyrussianbear69 anyone wanna rp uwu
Signal has had perfect forward secrecy since at least 2013 https://signal.org/blog/asynch...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
Given that WhatsApp uses the same signal protocol as signal itself, I would expect it to have perfect forward secrecy as well. But being owned by facebook, I don't trust WhatsApp anyway.