Telegram Suspected of Reading User Messages

Users have raised concerns about how authorization codes work in the Telegram messenger. Authors of the Telegram channel Mediatube noticed a specific feature in the authorization process that suggests service administrators might be able to read user messages.

When authorizing in Telegram, a user receives an SMS with a five-digit code. The same code is also sent as a service notification in a Telegram chat. If the user copies this code and sends it in a message to another user, the code is canceled and can no longer be used for authorization. Interestingly, even if the message contains other characters along with the code, the active confirmation code will still become invalid.

It is noted that if the code is sent through secret chats, it is not canceled. This fact leads to speculation that Telegram may be able to read user messages.

Former Telegram employee Anton Rozenberg explained to the publication “Kod Durova” that this feature is designed to protect users. “It’s simple and logical: to protect users from sending the code to hackers, the system checks outgoing messages to see if the code is included as a substring,” he said.

Previously, Telegram founder Pavel Durov acknowledged that the messenger has keys to all public chats, except for secret chats, whose keys are only held by the users themselves. Durov has not yet commented on the current situation.