For Rs 40, your personal data hangs by a thread.
Telegram’s data privacy problem simply refuses to end and at this point, it feels less like a series of one-off incidents and more like a pattern. We at Times Now Digital recently came across a bot on the platform that, for a payment as small as Rs 40, hands over a stranger’s full name, father’s name, mobile number, home address and complete vehicle history all just by typing in a registration number. No verification, no questions asked, no proof that you are the actual owner. Just pay, type and read. We are not naming the bot here. Publishing it would only hand more people a working tool to abuse, and that defeats the entire point of this story. What we can do is walk you through exactly what we saw, why it is dangerous, and why Telegram in particular keeps ending up at the centre of these controversies.