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
    86·
    2 years 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

          • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
            8·
            2 years ago

            The NSA already has your social map from Apple, Google, Facebook/whatsapp, plus a hundred other sources you’ve given access to your contacts in the past decade.

            Even if you’ve never used any of those, or given any app access to your contacts, 99% of your contacts have.

          • anamethatisnt@lemmy.worldEnglish
            5·
            2 years ago

            That they do, but your contacts doesn’t have to get it anymore.
            A self-hosted matrix stack built from source with matrix clients built from source with e2ee implemented that you yourself have the competence to verify the encryption and safety of would be the only secure communication I know of if you don’t want to trust a third party.

              • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                1·
                2 years ago

                Doesn’t XMPP tend to use always-active sockets? I looked into switching my number to a VOIP service and considered jmp.chat, but I heard people complain about phone battery life. I’m going to test it out soon, but if I go that route, I may consider hosting my own XMPP server if it can handle both my phone (i.e. answer calls on my computer instead of phone) and regular IM.

                And Simplex is awesome, but my issue is having the same account on multiple devices. I want to be able to see and respond to messages on my work laptop, personal laptop, personal desktop, and phone, and it seems Simplex only has basic support for it. I’m still playing with it, and I may end up switching to it, but for now, the experience isn’t very user-friendly.

          • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            2 years ago

            I’m way more concerned about the privacy of what I say than who I say it to.

          • TheRealKuni@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            2 years ago

            Why would you use iOS if you care about privacy?

            Because it’s far better for privacy than any Google-Play-Services-ridden version of Android, and sometimes in life you don’t want to have to deal with custom ROMs anymore.

            But also that’s an exceptionally dumb question, because the implication is that privacy can’t matter to people who don’t go to the same precise lengths someone else does.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.eeEnglish
        6·
        2 years ago

        After Signal’s lie about dropping SMS support because of “engineering costs”, I really can’t believe anything else they say.

        Plus the app experience sucks, it’s no better than SMS.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          7·
          2 years ago

          it’s no better than SMS

          That’s not true, but even so, the whole point is to be an alternative to SMS. It provides that experience, so I’m happy.

        • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
          5·
          2 years ago

          Wasn’t another explanation people mistakenly sending SMS and getting fucked when they meant to send a Signal message?

      • reev@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        9·
        2 years 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
        7·
        2 years 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
          10·
          2 years 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.

    • r0ertel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

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

      • Peasley@lemmy.worldEnglish
        17·
        2 years 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

    • daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      2 years 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.

    • essteeyou@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      2 years ago

      Who didn’t it work for? I switched to Signal in about 2016 or so, and haven’t had a problem with it. Admittedly I’m a software developer, and typically use high-end devices, so my knowledge is severely lacking.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        6·
        2 years ago

        I used it on lower-end devices around that time, but not bottom-of-the-barrel (Motorola smartphones). I had a Moto x4 then Moto G Power, and Signal worked fine on them. When Signal stopped working for SMS, I stopped using it, but I think I got my SO on board, so I’m back to using it for messaging.

  • michael_palmer@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    Enshitification in action. During 2024, Telegram declared war on rooted Android alongside WhatsApp and Viber. This means you can’t log in to your account if you have root access or if you don’t have Google services.