Is Telegram End-to-End Encrypted? Court Files Detail What Metadata It Can Give U.S. Investigators

Telegram began responding to U.S. law enforcement requests for subscriber information in September 2024, typically providing a user’s phone number and most recent login IP address, according to a July 31, 2025, FBI affidavit filed in federal court in Illinois. The disclosure policy described in the document marks a change in how the messaging platform handles U.S. legal requests, even as the company maintains that it does not provide investigators with message contents.

The affidavit, filed in United States v. Jaron Woodsley in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, describes Telegram’s general practices. It does not establish that the company handed investigators a specific user’s records in that case. The document nevertheless provides a direct account of what information Telegram says it can supply and puts its encryption model in sharper focus. 

What Telegram Disclosed To U.S. Authorities, And Why

FBI Special Agent Meghan Crooks wrote in the affidavit that Telegram had refused to respond to U.S. legal process until approximately September 2024. After updating its privacy policy, the company began responding to law enforcement requests for subscriber information, typically a user’s phone number and the IP address associated with the most recent login. Crooks also wrote that Telegram still did not provide communication contents in response to legal process. 

An IP address can help investigators identify the internet connection used to access an account, but it does not necessarily establish who was using that connection. A phone number can provide another link between an account and a person, though numbers may be shared, reassigned or registered under someone else’s name. Neither identifier, on its own, proves who sent a particular message.

Telegram’s privacy policy, updated Sept. 23, 2024, says the company may disclose a user’s IP address and phone number after receiving a valid order from relevant judicial authorities confirming that the person is a suspect in a case involving criminal activity that violates Telegram’s terms of service. The company says it reviews such requests and records disclosures in quarterly transparency reports. The policy establishes when disclosure may occur; it does not independently verify the number or details of records supplied to U.S. authorities. 

What Telegram Promises Users About Encryption

Telegram does not apply end-to-end encryption to every conversation by default. Its standard private and group conversations, known as cloud chats, use client-server encryption and are stored in encrypted form in Telegram’s cloud. This allows users to synchronize message histories across multiple devices, according to the company’s FAQ. 

Secret Chats use end-to-end encryption, meaning the participating devices hold the keys needed to read the messages. Telegram says those conversations are device-specific and are not part of its cloud storage. Users must start a Secret Chat manually; an ordinary private conversation is not automatically converted into one. 

That distinction helps explain why subscriber metadata and message content must be treated separately. A service may hold identifying information about an account even when it cannot read the contents of an end-to-end encrypted conversation. Telegram says it does not supply communication contents in response to legal process, but the affidavit is not an independent technical audit of every type of data the company retains or every disclosure it has made.

Durov’s Privacy Stance Meets Legal Pressure

Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov has made privacy central to the company’s public identity. In a June 18, 2025, interview with French magazine Le Point, Durov said Telegram had never disclosed a private message. He said that when a court decision identifies an account suspected in a criminal investigation, the company analyzes metadata that can provide an IP address and phone number.

Durov’s statement broadly matches the categories of subscriber information described in the FBI affidavit. But his assertion that Telegram has never disclosed private messages remains the company leader’s account, not an independent audit of its records or practices.

The policy change followed Durov’s arrest in France in August 2024, where authorities accused him of offenses connected to alleged criminal activity on the platform. Those accusations are separate from the Illinois case. The affidavit documents the timing of Telegram’s U.S. policy shift but does not establish that the arrest caused the change or that the company altered its encryption technology as a result.

What The Policy Means For Telegram Users

The practical lesson is that encryption and anonymity are different protections. End-to-end encryption is designed to prevent a service provider from reading message content. It does not automatically conceal a user’s phone number, login IP address or other identifying information held separately by the provider.

For users who need end-to-end encryption on Telegram, the company’s own guidance points to Secret Chats. Even then, encryption cannot stop a recipient from taking a screenshot, sharing information or exposing messages through a compromised or unlocked device. Telegram recommends Secret Chats for sensitive communications. 

The court record establishes a change in Telegram’s stated response to U.S. legal requests and identifies the subscriber information typically provided. It does not establish the number of U.S. requests that resulted in disclosures, the total volume of information supplied or whether Telegram produced records in the Woodsley investigation itself. Those questions require disclosure logs, case-specific records or further confirmation from the company or investigators.