Telegram app can be forced to reveal personal data to security services, Russian court rules

Russia's top court has ruled the Telegram app, which offers encrypted messaging services, can be forced to provide user data to authorities. The Supreme Court threw out an appeal by Telegram protesting against demands from the Federal Security Service intelligence agency (FSB) for it to hand over data from its users. People behind the app, which has caused controversy for allegedly being favoured by extremists, argued the FSB violated consumer rights by demanding encryption keys and chat histories. Telegram has been given 15 days to comply by Russia's communications regulator, or it risks being blocked in the country. Ramil Akhmetgaliev, the lawyer for the messaging company, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying Telegram considers it essential to "keep users' communications secret".