All messenger apps are ‘transparent’ to spy agencies – Kremlin

Governments and corporations should be aware of the risks associated with electronic communications, Dmitry Peskov has said

Messaging apps are “absolutely transparent” to intelligence agencies and security services, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. People who use them to share sensitive information should be aware of the risks, he added.

“All messengers are absolutely transparent systems, and people who use them should understand that they are transparent…. to the security services,” Peskov told journalists on Friday at the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia’s Vladivostok.

He added it was particularly important to consider the risks when sensitive government or commercial data are shared through such apps, which can be accessed by foreign intelligence services.

The official was commenting on Telegram and WhatsApp in Russia, as well as on the Russian government’s support for developing a domestic messaging platform.

Russian security services have accused Telegram and WhatsApp of using double standards for refusing to share data with the Russian authorities about fraud and terror plots while complying with similar requests from other countries.

Back in July, a member of the State Duma’s committee on information policy and technology, Anton Nemkin, called WhatsApp’s continued presence in Russia a “legalized breach of national security.”

Russian law enforcement officials have said that Ukrainian intelligence, along with other malicious actors such as swindlers and con artists, often relies on databases containing personal data obtained through WhatsApp and Telegram to recruit agents or identify targets inside Russia.

In December 2024, the US government also warned senior officials to switch to encrypted communications after a security breach in which a group of hackers stole data, including information stored under US government surveillance protocols as part of “legal” wiretapping of American suspects.

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