Crypto-Inspired Communication Devices Could Disrupt Government Surveillance, Says Telegram Founder

In a world increasingly wary of government surveillance, Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, envisions the frontier of privacy through the development of crypto-inspired hardware for secure communication.

During an interview with Tucker Carlson on April 17, Durov remembered how governments keep hiding the movement or sharing data secretly from private individuals:

“The world is becoming more difficult. Governments are less respectful of privacy. And surely this is what it turns out because they have more technology power.”

However, Durov believes that growing oversight will force innovations around hardware devices dedicated to secure communications. He compares this trend to the development of hardware wallets for storing cryptocurrency.

Surveillance Concerns: Durov & Snowden Insights

Furthermore, he disclosed the FBI’s attempt to persuade his company to add backdoors into their applications for monitoring purposes. Durov commented that the UAE’s political neutrality provides a perfect environment for entrepreneurs concerned about privacy and opposed surveillance.

“A small country that seeks to make friends with everyone. It does not have geopolitical alignments with any of the major superpowers. And I believe that if we want to secure users’ privacy with freedom of expression, there can be no better neutral ground than this.”

Durov addressed concerns about external influences on Telegram’s operations. He noted that he stays away from venture capital (VC) investments to keep out external influence on how Telegram functions.

He also disclosed that he has around a “few hundred million dollars” of fiat and Bitcoin, which allows him to self-fund his projects and companies with 100% control over them. However, he did raise funds for a few projects in the past, one of which was a crypto project.

Recently, Durov expressed concern about escalating government surveillance. Edward Snowden echoed this concern on April 16, warning that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) is only days away from “taking over the internet” with a massive expansion of its surveillance powers.

The NSA is just 𝗗𝗔𝗬𝗦 from taking over the internet, and it's not on the front page of any newspaper–because no one has noticed. https://t.co/qp5BimwOjI

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 15, 2024

Moreover, Snowden’s alert followed Elizabeth Goitein’s highlighting of a concerning issue in her role as co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program. She detailed how a tweak to the “electronic communications surveillance provider” in FISA 702 could yield significant consequences.

Her analysis suggests that this amendment expands the US government’s power to monitor beyond its borders. It would require nearly all internet service providers, including organizations and individuals, to collaborate with NSA surveillance efforts.

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