Threat to privacy: Telegram takes the French to witness

In recent months, a short noise in the corridors of encrypted messaging. The French legislator could force companies to integrate a backdoor, or stolen, within its applications. This measure would be integrated within the framework of the Narcotrafic law, in order to allow the police forces a better monitoring of the drug sales networks.

But, after long months of media show between Telegram and the government, here is that the final text, recently voted by the National Assembly, ultimately did not include this Backdoor obligation. However, the idea does not seem completely abandoned.

Popular pressure at the heart of Telegram strategy

In a message sent on April 28 to all its French users, the Telegram company expressed its recognition with regard to the legislator. Thus, during a fairly supplied text, the encrypted messaging manager praises the wisdom of the deputies, recalling in passing that measures of prohibitions for encryption are not even deployed by authoritarian regimes. And then, above all, the Telegram teams recall one of the major risks of the establishment of a backdoor: the lack of mastery.

Because, in fact, nothing fully guarantees that only members of the police will be able to use it. Once the stolen door integrated into the encryption mechanism of a secure application, it becomes a major vulnerability for the protection of personal data from users.

A stolen door can hide another

So, for Telegram, the stakes are high: beyond security issues, it is also for messaging to consolidate what makes its reputation, namely the possibility of quantifying individual conversations. One might therefore wonder the interest of such a press release, directly sent to its users, while the backdoor project was not finally integrated into the Narcotrafic law. Here, the answer is actually simple. In reality, the idea is far from abandoned.

Because if the National Assembly did not integrate it into the final text, it is on the side of the EU that a similar project is prepared. Protectuu, the Commission’s plan to strengthen the technological and digital security of the Union, should thus integrate various levers to strengthen its control over encrypted messaging. In question, their reputation as a privileged tool for many criminals and other actors in banditry. So, for the company based in Dubai as for its users, the soap is far from finished.