https://github.com/jkctech/Telegram-Trilateration Skip to content Sign up * Product + Features + Mobile + Actions + Codespaces + Packages + Security + Code review + Issues + Integrations + GitHub Sponsors + Customer stories * Team * Enterprise * Explore + Explore GitHub + Learn and contribute + Topics + Collections + Trending + Learning Lab + Open source guides + Connect with others + The ReadME Project + Events + Community forum + GitHub Education + GitHub Stars program * Marketplace * Pricing + Plans + Compare plans + Contact Sales + Education [ ] * # In this repository All GitHub | Jump to | * No suggested jump to results * # In this repository All GitHub | Jump to | * # In this user All GitHub | Jump to | * # In this repository All GitHub | Jump to | Sign in Sign up {{ message }} jkctech / Telegram-Trilateration Public * Notifications * Fork 43 * Star 262 Proof of concept for abusing Telegram's "People Near Me" feature and tracking people's location GPL-3.0 License 262 stars 43 forks Star Notifications * Code * Pull requests 0 * Discussions * Actions * Security * Insights More * Code * Pull requests * Discussions * Actions * Security * Insights This commit does not belong to any branch on this repository, and may belong to a fork outside of the repository. master Switch branches/tags [ ] Branches Tags Could not load branches Nothing to show {{ refName }} default View all branches Could not load tags Nothing to show {{ refName }} default View all tags 1 branch 0 tags Code Latest commit @jkctech jkctech THEY LISTENED ... 73b7419 Feb 27, 2022 THEY LISTENED 73b7419 Git stats * 56 commits Files Permalink Failed to load latest commit information. Type Name Latest commit message Commit time API Updated docs Feb 20, 2022 Scraping Updated docs Feb 20, 2022 Trilateration More Doc fixes Mar 27, 2021 Webview Added support for python generated dataset Feb 5, 2022 _assets Added video Mar 31, 2021 .gitignore Docs update Mar 22, 2021 LICENSE Create LICENSE Jan 18, 2022 README.MD THEY LISTENED Feb 27, 2022 View code [ ] Telegram Trilateration Telegram Finally listened! Some posts about this repository: UPDATE: API method Read More > [?][?] Disclaimer See the scraper and webviewer in action Table of Contents Trilateration Read More > Scraping (Obsolete) Read More > Webview Read More > Other Concerns The Solution PLEASE TELEGRAM, JUST ROUND THE DISTANCES TO WHOLE KILOMETERS... README.MD Telegram Trilateration Telegram Finally listened! It took them over a YEAR to realize their mistake but they FINALLY lowered the accuracy of the "People Nearby" function. Or it might be that the huge sudden outburst of negativity from Russian and Ukrainian media has finally made them come to senses -\_(tsu)_/- Either way, when you run the function now, you will only see results of 500m, 1km, 2km, etc. I have little faith left in Telegram when it comes to privacy and taking issues seriously. This repository will stay online, but be adviced that none of the data collection methods in here will work as expected. Some posts about this repository: [UA] (Focus.ua) Virakhuiut' navit' prezidenta: Telegram dozvoliaie diznatisia koordinati liudei iz tochnistiu do metra [RU] (CNews.ru) Telegram prevratilsia v legal'noe sredstvo slezhki za peredvizheniiami pol'zovatelei [RU] (Habr.com) Telegram pozvoliaet uznavat' koordinaty liudei s tochnost'iu do metra [EN] (OS2INT.com) APPLYING EFFECTIVE OSINT TO GEO-MONITOR RUSSIAN MILITARY ACTIVITY --------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATE: API method Turns out Telegram offers the possibility to request people nearby using their API. This means what the entirety of the "Scraping" section in this repository became obsolete... Sigh... Doing this requires about ~30 lines of code, instead of the spaghetti mountain I created by making an entire OPTICAL OCR SCRAPER AND PARSER ... What was I thinking anyway? TL;DR: I made a new script that can do the same thing, only much better and more stable. Read More > --------------------------------------------------------------------- [?][?] Disclaimer I have tried reaching out to Telegram via email. (Feb 22th 2021) After more than 1 month of no reply, I decided to open up this repository. I AM NOT ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE OR ILLEGAL ACTIVITY DONE BY END USERS! USE AT YOUR OWN RISK AND DISCRETION! A while back, Telegram rolled out a new (Opt-in) feature which allows users to find people and groupchats close to their location. This "Feature" allows you to see the relative distance between you and a user in meters! By abusing that data we are able to pinpoint someone's general location. When this feature is enabled, you will see this general warning: [notification] Which is, in my opinion, an understatement. --------------------------------------------------------------------- See the scraper and webviewer in action Video --------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents * Trilateration (Finding someone's location) * Scraping (Automating the trilateration & Tools) * Webview (Using the scraped data) * Other Concerns * The Solution --------------------------------------------------------------------- Trilateration A great example of why this new feature is a problem is trilateration. (Not to be confused with triangulation) Using this technique combined with GPS spoofing, we can determine a user's whereabouts by taking multiple samples of locations and distances relative to our own location. [trilateration] Read More > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Scraping (Obsolete) Locating someone by hand takes time (A few minutes) and effort (Clicking and typing). It will probably take you +-30 minutes to track someone by hand. So naturally, I spent weeks of effort into automating this system to save myself minutes of time... [scrape] Read More > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Webview Gathering the data through scraping is fun and all, but actually being able to interpret it is better. (I took this way too far, please don't ever be like me) [webview] Read More > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Concerns Other than users, groupchats can also be indexed by location. You have to create a group specifically for this purpose so when you create one, you probably realize everyone can read along with the chats, but some of the people who join by invite for example won't. The contents of the groupchat can be seen by anyone without actually joining which is literally spying. Using this, it's not hard to find groups where people sell illegal goods / services or find private information. "Anyone who wants to buy some good weed?" [groups] This is already being used A LOT by bots. Go have a look yourself, open up some random groups and I almost guarantee it will show you lots of "Hot single ladies who are looking for a good time" with very questionable pictures... On another note, finding user information on Telegram is not difficult. It's expected that people see your profile, regardless of using the "Nearby" function or just using the search feature. The problem here is by using location search you gain much more information and are able to just "browse" for people. By finding someone, you can see their profile picture(s), bio and username. (Depending on their privacy settings) Being able to see someone's profile on a "search engine" is to be expected and key to it's functionality but being able to find people this way could open up a doorway for stalkers to find someone or just lurk for random people without them knowing their phonenumber or Telegram username. [user] --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Solution PLEASE TELEGRAM, JUST ROUND THE DISTANCES TO WHOLE KILOMETERS... There is literally no good reason to show random people a distance THIS accurate... (Was not so hard after all, was it?) About Proof of concept for abusing Telegram's "People Near Me" feature and tracking people's location Topics python security privacy telegram exploit vulnerability gps-location gps-coordinates nox nox-player Resources Readme License GPL-3.0 License Stars 262 stars Watchers 11 watching Forks 43 forks Languages * Python 73.1% * HTML 12.0% * JavaScript 10.8% * CSS 4.1% * (c) 2022 GitHub, Inc. * Terms * Privacy * Security * Status * Docs * Contact GitHub * Pricing * API * Training * Blog * About You can't perform that action at this time. You signed in with another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session. You signed out in another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.