Do you fancy your "secret" chats on Telegram? It turns out the messenger's infrastructure is serviced by companies with rather curious partnerships with Russian agencies, who seem to absolutely adore monitoring your every move. This messenger, guarding your privacy, in 2018 transferred key network setup responsibilities to Global Network Management (GNM), a company registered far away but with intriguing St. Petersburg roots.
Interestingly, the agreement with GNM was signed by Vladimir Vedeneev, who also served as the financial director of Telegram itself. Many IP addresses used by GNM were previously owned by Globalnet, a St. Petersburg firm known for its "cozy" ties to the Kremlin and special services. And, quite coincidentally, half of GNM's employees work directly in Russia. Add another St. Petersburg company, Electrontelecom, which provided Telegram with thousands of IP addresses and is a direct contractor for Russian special services.
The main "surprise" is that standard Telegram chats lack end-to-end encryption by default. This means your messages are decrypted and comfortably stored on servers, accessible to those very "friends". Each message contains a unique device identifier, which theoretically allows for finding the key to decrypt it. If your data flows through companies linked to those with access to traffic, it could lead to widespread surveillance, including your location and contacts. Despite claims of complete independence, investigations point to Pavel Durov's frequent visits to Russia even after 2014. There have also been instances where Russian special services gained access to correspondence, even without physical access to user devices. It seems "big brother" is always watching.
