One of the claims of the French authorities to Telegram is to refuse to cooperate with special services

Is Durov’s position so unusual? We study the experience of Apple, Google and Meta

The founder of Telegram Pavel Durov was detained in France on the night of August 25 as part of a criminal investigation under 12 articles. Among them are complicity in drug trafficking, storing child pornography and the distribution of hacker programs. The list allocates a clause on the refusal to provide information at the needs of authorized bodies. The creator of Telegram is known that he fundamentally refuses to cooperate with special services and introduce strict moderation in his messenger. Does this mean that the rest of the large technological companies, whose leaders are free, are tightly cooperating with special services? Medusa studied the experience of Apple, Meta and other companies.

Listen to the audio version of this text here .

Apple

For years, Apple has been telling products about how highly appreciates the privacy of these users. This is especially true for information that is located on the devices themselves - and not in the Apple cloud.

The most famous case occurred in 2016. Then the FBI through the court demanded from Apple to provide access to the phone of a terrorist involved in the murder of 14 people in the California San Bernardino. The company agreed to cooperate and offered the authorities several options that could help to obtain the necessary data (they, however, did not work).

But the Apple’s court categorically refused to fulfill one requirement: the company was ordered to create a special version of iOS, which would allow the terrorist’s iPhone to break through passwords. The company said that theoretically this is possible, but the appearance of iOS with Bacdor can create a dangerous precedent that will jeopardize the safety of personal information of users. In addition, this will give the state more opportunities both for users control and further pressure on technological companies, approved in Apple.

As a result, the American authorities nevertheless gained access to the shooter’s phone, using the services of a third -party Australian company Azimuth Security. And she is not the only one who helps special services around the world in breaking electronic devices using vulnerabilities in their operating systems. For example, the Israeli company Cellebrite helped to access the data from Thomas Matthew Kruks, who shot at Donald Trump at a pre-election rally in July 2024. She provided the FBI with a new version of the software that is still in development, and with its help the Samsung smartphone with the Android operating system was hacked in 40 minutes.

Apple's fundamental position regarding the creation of a special IOS version for special services does not mean that the company does not cooperate with the authorities at all. In 2017, after a massacre in the Texas city of Sasrand-Springs, she herself offered the FBI help. Probably, it was not about breaking the phone, but about providing access to the contents of the ICLOUD cloud storage by court decision. However, at that time, the special services themselves abandoned Apple’s assistance.

Once Apple almost introduced a function into their devices, which would herself notify the police that users are storing illegal information. This happened in 2021, when the company decided to introduce a system that would scan photographs on iPhones and iPads of users and check them for children's pornography. Apple argued that this function would not be used to survive users. But after criticism of human rights activists, the company suspended the deployment of the system, and at the end of 2022 finally abandoned this idea.

The company regularly publishes reports related to the requests of the authorities around the world. As a rule, they relate to these ITUNES or ICloud accounts, or data stored directly in ICLUD. So, in the first six months of 2019, the company received 3619 such requests in the United States and satisfied 90% of them. In the first half of 2023, their number was already 9813. The percentage of satisfied queries did not change.

Appeals also continue to come from Russia, but for two requests for the last reporting period, the company refused to provide data.

Meta

META own not only Facebook and Instagram, but also the WhatsApp messenger, the main competitor Telegram and a target for constant jokes from Pavel Durov. Unlike Telegram, WhatsApp encrypts End-to-end with encryption of all user messages. And also, unlike Telegram, WhatsApp is actively fighting suspicious activity in his services and collaborates with the authorities.

So, just the other day in WhatsApp they blocked a network of accounts related to Iran. They were masked under the technical support of well -known companies and tried to influence the course of the campaign in the United States.

In 2021, from the FBI document, which fell into the network, whatsApp provides the authorities much more information than other messengers. In the presence of a warrant of special services, in particular, they can receive contacts from the user's address book, as well as a list of people whose himself is recorded in contacts. At the same time, whatsApp can transmit information about the sender and addressee of each message every 15 minutes. True, we are not talking about the contents of the correspondence, but only about metadata. Apple also provides them (it is about her Imessage service), but not with such a frequency - only at the request of the investigation.

WhatsApp cannot transmit the contents of the messages because of the very End-to-end encryption. Its use causes criticism of special services in Europe - they urge the authorities to achieve access to users' messages in order to combat child pornography. In this, at whatsApp, they fundamentally oppose legislative initiatives aimed at weakening encryption.

From META reports it follows that the number of requests from the authorities of different countries around the world over the past 10 years has grown more than 10 times. In the second half of 2023, the company registered more than 300 thousand appeals (which was their essence - it was not specified), which affected more than half a million users or accounts. On average, the company fully or partially satisfies more than 70% of requests. The demands of the Russian authorities, according to the schedule , META did not react.

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation was involved in a large scandal associated with special services. In 2013, the former US National Security Agency Employee Edward Snowden (now he lives in Russia) provided reporters with documents confirming that the company worked closely with the FBI and the NSA.

In particular, Microsoft provided the authorities with access to their postal servers and the cloud service of Skydrive (now it is called OneDrive) as part of the state program of unofficial collection of PRISM information. In addition, special services had the opportunity to collect audio and video calls in Skype. Microsoft said that they provide access to data only in response to legal requests of the government. But even in these cases, special services have no direct access to the company's services.

Microsoft divides authorities' requests into three categories: civil, criminal and emergency. Most of the appeals are associated with crime. The last published report for the second half of 2022 states that Microsoft received 24,738 requests in this category, satisfying 60% of them. The company emphasizes that it revealed data that concerns subscribers of its services and transactions, but did not share content with the special services. At the same time, all 494 requests from Russia remained unanswered.

Google

In 2018, it became known about Google's plans to enter the Chinese market-one of the most stringent in terms of Internet regulation. In fact, the company was ready to accept all the requirements of local authorities in order to open access to a new audience.

Journalists learned that for some time the company has been working on the Dragonfly secret project. This is a search application for platforms based on Android, which automatically removed all sites blocked in China from the issuance and brought it into line with existing censorship restrictions. Also, the regional version of the search engine ignored certain requests, for example, about peaceful protests or human rights. A year later, this project was closed .

The number of requests from the authorities related to the disclosure of one or another information about users is growing steadily in Google. In the second half of 2023, she received more than 216 thousand appeals, satisfying 81% of them. Moreover, this is the only company mentioned in this material that continues to respond to requests from Russia. Of the 20 appeals for the last reporting period, it satisfied 40%, that is, in eight cases, it revealed (in whole or in part) requested information about users.

Tiktok

An example of Tiktok demonstrates that even cooperation and fulfillment of the requirements of state structures does not guarantee the absence of problems in a particular market. For several years, representatives of the company have been unsuccessfully trying to convince the American authorities that the social network has not been threatening the country's national security.

Tiktok consistently complied with the US requirements: he began to store American users on Oracle servers and agreed to give engineers the latter access to the source code of the application and the content issuance algorithm. In addition, the head of Tiktok Chu show Zi participated in the hearing of the US Congress, where he talked about how the processes related to user data security were arranged.

However, all these actions did not lead to anything. The American authorities still believe that the Chinese government can force the BYTEDANCE, which belongs to Tiktok, to transfer it to American users. Although there is no evidence that this has ever happened in the past.

In April 2024, US President Joe Biden signed a law obliging ByTedance to sell Tiktok to the American owner within 270 days. Otherwise, the social network application will be removed from the App Store and Google Play in the country's territory. The company filed an appeal that will begin to be considered in mid -September.

Openai and other AI companies

The development of artificial intelligence is a relatively new area, but its authorities of different countries are already trying to regulate it. From August 1, 2024, the so -called AI ACT, or the "AI Law" entered into force in the European Union. This is the world's first document that regulates the use of artificial intelligence in a particular region. Moreover, even those developers who are outside the EU should comply with it, but provide access to their products in European countries.

The “Act Law” is primarily aimed at protecting users from possible harm, which can cause uncontrolled development and use of artificial intelligence. But for developers, this means at least an additional legal barrier when creating and teaching their models. For example, thorough checks of projects with a “high” risk level.

In the USA, and specifically in the state of California, where the headquarters of the largest artificial intelligence developers, including Openai, Google, Meta and Apple, want to adopt their regulatory law. In particular, he will allow the authorities to disconnect any AI systems at their discretion if they consider them dangerous. The introduction of a mandatory annual certification stipulated by the bill will not only introduce an additional legal barrier, but will also open access to confidential data to the authorities.

In addition, some experts believe that the so -called “law on the safe development of advanced artificial intelligence models” imposes a direct responsibility for the developers for those who abuse their products. In some ways, this is like a situation in which Pavel Durov found himself. Many AI developers have already opposed such regulation or offered their amendments. It is not yet clear in what form this bill will reach the final stages of consideration.

PS And what about Telegram itself?

In fact, in the messenger of Pavel Durov there are certain tools that allow you to control part of the content, and also provide transparency in the relationship of Telegram with the authorities. For example, there is a separate channel that regularly reports on the number of blocked accounts and bots that distribute content related to terrorists. Users also have the opportunity to complain about such messages in the application itself or through the mail.

In 2018, shortly after the first attempt by the Russian authorities to block the messenger in the country, Telegram updated his confidentiality policy. Now in paragraph 8.3 it is said that the platform is ready to disclose the IP address and the user phone number if he receives a court decision confirming that he is a suspect in terrorism. It is emphasized that so far there have been no such appeals. There is a special bot that allows you to track requests, but it provides information only for those countries where the request comes from.

In the general rules of use, there is also a paragraph dedicated to copyright protection. It says that Telegram employees process all complaints related to a copy of the copy in public space. That is, this applies to bots and channels, but does not affect personal correspondence and group chats - the requests related to them are ignored.

In addition, users can directly from the application complain about the content associated with violence, pornography, spam, inappropriate handling of children and fake accounts. How many moderators work in Telegram and how quickly they react to complaints is unknown.

"Jellyfish"