Telegram is known as a privacy-focused secure messaging app because it markets itself that way. However, it is often criticized by security experts, privacy advocates, and people with common sense who can understand why its claims about being privacy-friendly don't make sense. In this brief article, I'll show you all
  • Peasley@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8116·
    2 days ago

    Nothing new here. E2E is only available in one on one chats and is disabled by default. Dont use Telegram if privacy is your main concern.

    At least it has an open-source client. Very few messaging platforms can say that, and fewer have a decent UX.

    It’s not perfect, but it’s got a good combination of features and multi-platform availability. None of the other messaging apps support all of my devices except Matrix, and Matrix doesn’t have stickers

    Edit: Signal doesn’t support all my devices but maybe someday! The network effect is also big. None of my family and friends are on Signal, but most have Telegram. A few have Matrix.

    Also Signal is a US-based company.

    Edit 2: Matrix does have stickers, i guess I’m switching

    • daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      Problem I have with matrix is that, afaik, does not currently support temporal or self destructing messages. Which is a big no-no for privacy conscious usage.

      • reev@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        103·
        2 days ago

        Doesn’t have unlimited storage though. It’s really nice being able to jump to any of the 15,000+ images shared with a single person dating back to like 2015 within a couple seconds. I know that’s a privacy concern but nothing comes close to telegram’s searchability and the unlimited storage.

      • Peasley@lemmy.worldEnglish
        63·
        16 hours ago

        It’s a messaging app, it’s useless if there is nobody to message. I dont have any friends using signal yet.

        Also it doesnt work on my phone (Ubuntu touch). There used to be a community app but it’s not currently working.

        I sincerely wish them success, but it’s hard to have faith that a US-based company will actually protect your privacy. Not that Telegram does either. I dont know what information they do even collect.

        • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
          104·
          2 days ago

          It’s hard to have faith that a US-based company will actually protect your privacy.

          You don’t have to, though? 1) The E2EE Signal protocol is well-audited to be robust. 2) The app itself is FOSS, and there are a lot of eyes on it. 3) The server code is FOSS. Even if they’re lying about what code they use, it doesn’t matter because it’s E2EE. 4) If you think Signal might be bait-and-switching by building from different source code, you’d be provably wrong. They have reproducible builds, so were they to actually try this, it would be like sending up a flare to the entire security community. 5) Literally every single time OWS has been subpoenaed, the only information they’ve been able to provide is extremely basic metadata like server connection times.

          You have no idea what you’re talking about, I’m sorry. There’s functionally less “trust” here than any messaging application on the planet. The network effect remark is at least valid and can be debated (although I personally have zero friends who use Telegram and at least several who use Signal). This one is just so, so wrong that it’s not even up for debate.

          • Peasley@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            2 days ago

            Thanks for the elaboration. I’m not familiar with how Signal works.

            • Thetimefarm@lemm.eeEnglish
              31·
              17 hours ago

              Educating yourself on topic is a good idea BEFORE you plan on arguing about it online.

    • r0ertel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      Can you elaborate on your last sentence? Is the US more or less trustworthy than alternatives?

      • Peasley@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15·
        2 days ago

        Less than some. The US gov has a history of forcing US-based corporations to disclose private data regardless of their policies or the law.

        I can’t give you a good alternative though. I’m sure the same thing happens in many countries

      • viking@infosec.pubEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        I tried it, and it looks decent, but there wasn’t a single person I know around.

        • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          I’m not surprised due to my involvement in the Monero community, at least some people I know from previous online chat rooms are there, but I don’t know anybody directly in person like from my day-to-day life that uses it.