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(d) Spam, Phishing, etc. (xviii) Clause 5.2 provides that for the purpose of safety and security, to prevent spam, abuse and other violations of Telegram's Terms of Service, Telegram may collect metadata such as IP address of the user, devices used by the user, history of username changes, etc. Such data can be stored for 12 months.

(xix) Clause 5.3 notes that spamming, phishing and other kind of abuse is barred on Telegram. If there is a report of spam, which is confirmed by Telegram's moderators, temporary or permanent disablement can take place. The account may also be finally banned. In order to stop spamming and phishing, Telegram can also use automated algorithms to analyse messages.

(viii) This position was also most recently reiterated in Tara Batra v. Punam A. Kumar & Ors. [CM(M)No. 925/2019, decided on 10 th September, 2021] by a Coordinate Bench of this Court. In the present suit, the most important information is the details relating to the origin of the infringing copies of the copyrighted works.

(ix) Even under the provisions of the IT Act, such as under Section 79(3)(b), Telegram has a duty to expeditiously remove or disable access to the unlawful material, without vitiating the evidence in any manner. In addition, under Rule 3 of the IT Guidelines, the intermediary has a duty to tell its users not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, update or share any information, which infringes on copyright or other proprietary rights or violates any law. This is buttressed by the fact that under its own Privacy Policy, Telegram does not permit spamming, phishing and other abuses. Under such circumstances, as per clause 2 of its own Privacy Policy, fundamental rights would not come to the aid of protection of personal data related to the infringers, as it is only the "processing" of data, which can be stopped for protection of fundamental rights. Disclosure pursuant to an order passed by a Court of law of the details of the channel operators who are disseminating materials infringing the copyrighted works, or the devices and other gadgets used, cannot be shielded under the grounds of protection of privacy or protection of freedom of speech and expression. Disclosure of such data pursuant to a Court order would not fall in the definition of "processing", which is the only activity that is restricted by the infringing users' fundamental rights. Telegram's own privacy policy does not recognize the defence, which has been canvassed before this Court.