Legal challenges have mounted for Telegram in India, after NEET-UGC paper leak allegations, now the social media giant is battling against Star Health over a private medical data breach case in court
Telegram defended itself in the Star Health data leak case on Friday as the social media giant’s legal counsel informed the Madras High Court bench that the platform will delete specific accounts if the company provides strong evidence of their involvement in data leaks.
The lawyer mentioned that under the Information Technology Act and related rules, the company isn’t empowered to trace the IP address and do independent ‘policing’ of content.
“If I’m given a name of the person whose account has to be taken down, I can block it. But they want me to police. I can’t do that under the IT Act. If they’re asking me to monitor all accounts where Star Health’s data is being posted, I can’t do that. I don’t have that power,” Telegram said in court, according to a Livelaw report.
The Madras High Court has directed Star Health Insurance to provide details about a customer data leak involving Telegram chatbots. Telegram said it could not independently identify these chatbots but agreed to remove them if Star Health shares specific details, according to news agency Reuters.
Earlier in September, Star Health, an Indian health insurance company, filed a lawsuit against Telegram and hackers following a report published by Reuters. The report claimed that chatbots on Telegram were being misused to leak personal data and medical reports of nearly 3 crore Star Health policyholders. Reportedly, the private medical details of people were up for sale on the platform.
The insurance company called the data leak incident an act of “illegal hacking and unauthorised accessing of confidential, sensitive information”.
Acting in the case, the Madras High Court asked Star Health to share a detailed report about the Telegram accounts allegedly involved in the leak.
The messaging app has come under scrutiny in India and internationally with serious allegations against the platform that led to the arrest of the 39-year-old founder of Telegram Pavel Durov by French investigating authority. From sharing abusive content to drug trafficking, the allegations against the app have sparked discussions around privacy and safety of users and their data.
In India the messaging app has been taken to the corridors of court over alleged data leak and the app being a playground for illegal activities.
Telegram’s name surfaced in UGC-NEET entrance exam paper leak controversy. The medical exam papers were allegedly sold on the platform.
“We tallied the questions with the original UGC-NET questions, and they matched...All these activities took place on Telegram these days. It is a challenge to track the complex nature of Telegram without a high-level investigation,” said Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Earlier in July, the securities and exchange board of India (SEBI) accused Telegram of running a stock-price rigging racket.
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