Contacting rights groups more safely

For anyone who wants to contact a lawyer, a rights group or a journalist and worries about the messages being seen.

The 5-minute minimum

• Take contacts only from the organisation's official website or its card on this site: popular bots have data-harvesting clones.
• Check the organisation's designation first. Messages with an 'undesirable', 'extremist' or 'terrorist' organisation may raise questions if your phone is inspected. Decide for yourself; ask a lawyer if unsure.
• Be brief: what happened, where, when, how to reach you. Send documents only when asked.
• Real rights groups never ask for passwords, SMS codes or money in a chat.

If you are at risk

• Agree a backup channel outside Telegram and a code word.
• Turn on auto-delete in chats with lawyers if your phone may be inspected. If a case has been opened, a report drawn up or your phone seized, don't delete anything without a lawyer: deletion can be used against you and won't remove what the authorities have already copied.
• Discuss your case in person or over secure channels, not ordinary phone calls or MAX.

What not to do

• Don't contact rights groups via MAX, VK, Odnoklassniki or Russian email.
• Don't pay 'lawyers' who approached you first.

What traces remain

• Your operator keeps call and SMS records; regular Telegram chats sit on its servers.

current as of 26 September 2026. More: Access Now Digital Security Helpline (24/7, Russian spoken); Front Line Defenders: 24/7 emergency contact for defenders at risk (Russian spoken); First Line: choosing a secure messenger; First Line: is it risky to deal with 'foreign agents' (updated 07.11.2025); First Line: understanding the designations of organisations and media; Security in-a-Box: secure messaging (Russian)