Star Health leak: Can only monitor accounts flagged to us, says Telegram

The messaging platform Telegram on Friday told an Indian court it cannot monitor all the accounts it hosts to look for leaked customer data from Indian insurer Star Health, and will only block problematic content that is flagged to it.  A lawyer representing Telegram said during Friday's hearing that it would be in violation of Indian laws if it were to police all chatbots on the platform to identify leaked data.  The Madras High Court in the southern state of Tamil Nadu has asked insurer Star Health to help Telegram identify data leaked via its messaging app so the chatbots can be deleted.

The country's biggest insurer with roughly $4 billion market cap approached the Madras High Court after Reuters reported on September 20 that a hacker had leaked sensitive customer data including medical claim papers and tax details through telegram chatbots.

The Madras High Court judge Justice K Kumaresh Babu directed the insurer to share information after Star Health requested the court direct Telegram to take immediate action and remove bots linked to the data leak.

Telegram said it was unable to search for leaks on its own but agreed to delete the data if the insurer helped.

On Friday, Telegram's lawyer Thriyambak Kannan told the court that the messaging app needs Star Health to identify and share the details of the chatbots leaking the data.

The Dubai-based messenger app has previously said it removed the chatbots when Reuters flagged them to the platform.

Star Health faces a ransom demand of $68,000 and is also investigating allegations that its chief security officer was involved in the data leak, but earlier this month said it had so far found no evidence of wrongdoing. The officer previously declined to comment.

The leak involves personal information which is very confidential, Star Health's lawyer told the court.

The case will resume after two weeks.