Durov spoke about the FBI's attempts to gain access to data from Telegram users.

About three months ago, the creator of the telegram messenger Pavel Durov said that the FBI tried to bribe the company's employees (the entrepreneur does not disclose their names). Then Durov said that the FBI (and the NSA along with it) wanted to get information about the encryption algorithm that is used in the messenger. Of course, not for the sake of curiosity, but in order to be able to read the correspondence of users. Telegram is a well-protected instant messenger, user correspondence is encrypted and is available only to the interlocutors



Initially, it was said that the FBI attempted to exert pressure during Durov’s trip with the team in the United States. But now it turned out that the agency was trying to establish a communication channel, starting in 2014, just after the entrepreneur sold his stake in the Russian social network Vkontakte. True, three years ago, Americans were interested in, first of all, it was this social network.





Durov said that he provided the data, but only those that were already in the public domain. Over time, as the Telegram messenger became more and more popular, the FBI agents tried to establish a communication channel to gain access to private data. At first they asked the usual questions like the location of the office and the principles of the messenger. Then, after receiving these data, letters began to come to the office of the company with requests for various kinds of assistance, including the transfer of data about Telegram users who, according to the FBI, are involved in terrorist organizations.



Already in 2016, Pavel Durov arrived in Silicon Valley on Google I / O. There he stayed in a house that was rented through the Airbnb service. But on the very first morning of being there, the guests of the FBI came to the founder of Telegram in order to ask a few questions. And Durov did not inform anyone about his location, plus it is believed that Airbnb does not disclose data about its users. So, the FBI agents presented a document with a court order, which referred to the need to transfer data about users of the messenger. Not all users, but only those who are involved in terrorist acts and other illegal actions of prohibited organizations.



Durov said that, most likely, the court order was not real, because the US court cannot specify what and how to do to companies that are not under the jurisdiction of this state. No court in this country would have issued such a ruling, because from a legal point of view it is meaningless.



In addition to Durov himself, the FBI representatives tried to put pressure on one of the company's employees. He was offered tens of thousands of dollars for information about some of the features of the architecture of the messenger. The developer refused, in addition, he told Durov about this meeting, which the FBI asked not to do. According to Pavel, it is impossible to bribe the developers, since all the developers of the company are millionaires. It is clear that they are unlikely to be interested in tens of thousands of dollars from the FBI.



Information about the FBI’s attempts to gain access to the Telegram’s internal kitchen in any way, Pavel Durov provided journalist Yasha Levin, who published a large article on TheBaffer.





Why all this became public only now? Durov decided to tell about everything in order to show how the FBI works. He believes that agents in Silicon Valley are almost “their people”. If they already have access to information on the booking of houses and apartments on Airbnb, then we must think that their information preparation is substantial. They try to bribe developers, meet the right people at the airport, come to their home. Pavel also expressed the opinion that the quality of work of agents is at a height. They speak several languages, they know a lot (very much about technologies) and most importantly they know what to ask the developers. That is, this is not the work “according to the training manual”, the agents really understand what they are asking about.



If the FBI is trying to have such a strong influence on companies that are not residents of the United States, then we can only imagine what measures are exerted on US companies, both the management and their employees.