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Seeing a lot of weird hate towards Telegram…

I first switched to Telegram back in the day when Microsoft gutted Skype and ruined its features, so I tried Telegram and got all my furry friends to move over to it.

At that time it was used by a lot of journalists as it was one of the few chat apps to support end to end encryption. It still has the secret chat mode, which is nice, as well as timers on photos, etc. They continue to add lots of features.

By now lots of Telegrams main features have been added to other chat apps, but they were one of the first apps that really had easy to use end to end encrypted chats as well as robust group chat features.

The fact that a bunch of far-right conspiracy theorists have flocked to the app is a recent move, and I don’t think Telegram should be blamed outright for it. Once Twitter and Facebook started cracking down on those people, they scattered to many places - and it’s harder to track and ban people on chat apps than it is on a social media page. I’ve seen the same thing happening to Discord - it’s not exclusive to Telegram. Telegram just got picked as the latest favorite tool of the right and eventually something else will take its place.
And weird that those hates are mostly from Signal lovers.
 
Telegram is independent from Meta, Apple, etc, has a very modern look-and-feel – and is cross platform.
While being worse than even Whatsapp.

The draw of Telegram was the ability to use multiple devices. But in reality, it's worse than Whatsapp. Say all you want about meta, but Whatsapp has e2e encryption. Telegram doesn't use e2e encryption by default, so for most of the users, their chats are practically in plain text in some server somewhere.

Want an alternative, Signal is the better solution.
 
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And its privacy policy is a disaster. Go for Signal.

While being worse than even Whatsapp.

The draw of Telegram was the ability to use multiple devices. But in reality, it's worse than Whatsapp. Say all you want about meta, but Whatsapp has e2e encryption. Telegram doesn't use e2e encryption by default, so for most of the users, their chats are practically in plain text in some server somewhere.

Want an alternative, Signal is the better solution.
Per FBI own assessment Telegram is even better than Signal. Saying that WhatsApp is better is just delusional. Yes they do have e2ee, but until recently you could not use it with icloud back up, neither you can't be sure that Meta does not access all your metadata including mic and camera feed.


Telegram has dual encryption on purpose: multi devise accessibility for low importance information, maximum security with e2ee in secret chats. You can choose between convenience and security for every message. If you only use Telegram's secret chats it will have exactly the same features as Signal and even more secure cause you can hide your number. Not being based on American soil is also a big plus. America has a long history of subverting encryption protocols.



 
Per FBI own assessment Telegram is even better than Signal. Saying that WhatsApp is better is just delusional. Yes they do have e2ee, but until recently you could not use it with icloud back up, neither you can't be sure that Meta does not access all your metadata including mic and camera feed.

The keyword is “by default.” Most users don’t change anything other than the default. By default, WhatsApp has e2ee. Telegram does not enable e2ee by default. So by default, most users on WhatsApp are protected, while most users on telegram have their chats in plain text stored out there.

Oh and about backup, WhatsApp allows e2e encrypted backup now. So that argument is no longer valid.
 
The keyword is “by default.” Most users don’t change anything other than the default. By default, WhatsApp has e2ee. Telegram does not enable e2ee by default. So by default, most users on WhatsApp are protected, while most users on telegram have their chats in plain text stored out there.

Oh and about backup, WhatsApp allows e2e encrypted backup now. So that argument is no longer valid.
Ok since 14th of October 2021 Meta and every interested party can not read your back ups. That’s good progress. However, e2ee is only one of possible security features and I mentioned few other things in my comment.
Even if Whatsapp actually has proper e2ee (which is questionable given US track record and that encryption protocol was funded by US government) meta still has access to all your metadata (how ironic).
Don’t believe that metadata is important? Let’s ask Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and NSA:


Revelations start at 18:00.
Not to mention other problems:


“By default” is a lame argument. Are encrypted cloud back ups turned on by default in whatsapp? Can you be sure people you talk with have it on?
In telegram you can respond to every message by starting a secret chat, so you can be sure it’s actually encrypted.
Features telegram offers are impossible to implement with e2ee, so it offers a choice between them.
E2ee in this case is not even a feature which can be turned on or off, it’s literally two modes of using the app.

PS I started getting WhatsApp ads since my last comment, not suspicious at all!
 
Per FBI own assessment Telegram is even better than Signal. Saying that WhatsApp is better is just delusional. Yes they do have e2ee, but until recently you could not use it with icloud back up, neither you can't be sure that Meta does not access all your metadata including mic and camera feed.


Telegram has dual encryption on purpose: multi devise accessibility for low importance information, maximum security with e2ee in secret chats. You can choose between convenience and security for every message. If you only use Telegram's secret chats it will have exactly the same features as Signal and even more secure cause you can hide your number. Not being based on American soil is also a big plus. America has a long history of subverting encryption protocols.



This should be the top comment. According to the CIA, with settings on Telegram configured for privacy, it’s technically more lock-tight than Signal, and far more lock-tight than iMessage and WhatsApp.
 
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Telegram is a fantastic messenger from the features stand point and even WhatsApp can't offer all the features offered by Teelegram. But the default encryption which is not available with the chat is the major concern. All other messengers at least offers default encryption and they can not read our chat messages. But Telegram literally fails in this aspect. The server is secured argument will never work. So in future we never know what telegram team will do with the data what they can open and read.
 
Signal is always my preferred messenger even with the most limited features but security is the first priority. We have to support Signal to add more features in the app and ensure its availability in future too.
 
Per FBI own assessment Telegram is even better than Signal.


It doesn’t really say that though, does it? It says Telegram will provide an IP address and phone number for terrorist organisation investigations. And for Signal, the date a user registered and the date last used. You have drawn your own conclusion. This slide is representing the legal position and does not consider the hacking angle.

To my mind it matters that message content is stored on Telegram servers (encrypted or not), whereas Signal doesn’t store message data at all. As long as the data is present it’s vulnerable.

I feel it’s also relevant that Signal has been independently security audited and is open source, Telegram has not and is not.
 
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This should be the top comment. According to the CIA, with settings on Telegram configured for privacy, it’s technically more lock-tight than Signal, and far more lock-tight than iMessage and WhatsApp.
Yea... but how many people do you think would use anything other than the default? And if that were better, why can't Telegram make that tighter setting as the default?
 
I installed it earlier this year and deleted it a month or so ago.

Aside from only 2 people in my life also being on it I set up a group for my local area and within minutes had explicit videos and posts advertising drugs for sale appearing.

Over the month or so I kept it open I reported over 200 accounts.

It’s toxic.
 
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The keyword is “by default.” Most users don’t change anything other than the default. By default, WhatsApp has e2ee. Telegram does not enable e2ee by default. So by default, most users on WhatsApp are protected, while most users on telegram have their chats in plain text stored out there.

Oh and about backup, WhatsApp allows e2e encrypted backup now. So that argument is no longer valid.


“By default” is a lame argument. Are encrypted cloud back ups turned on by default in whatsapp? Can you be sure people you talk with have it on?
In telegram you can respond to every message by starting a secret chat, so you can be sure it’s actually encrypted.
Features telegram offers are impossible to implement with e2ee, so it offers a choice between them.
E2ee in this case is not even a feature which can be turned on or off, it’s literally two modes of using the app.


It doesn’t really say that though, does it? It says Telegram will provide an IP address and phone number for terrorist organisation investigations. And for Signal, the date a user registered and the date last used. You have drawn your own conclusion. This slide is representing the legal position and does not consider the hacking angle.

To my mind it matters that message content is stored on Telegram servers (encrypted or not), whereas Signal doesn’t store message data at all. As long as the data is present it’s vulnerable.

I feel it’s also relevant that Signal has been independently security audited and is open source, Telegram has not and is not.

Between Signal and Telegram there can be some debate. Do you prefer US government funded encryption protocol or proprietary one; foolproof app or feature rich. In some aspects Signal is better (eg it has e2ee group chats). In other Telegram is (eg you can hide your phone number).
It’s unfair to claim that telegram is less secure because in one of the modes messages are not encrypted. It just offers more features some of which can not be implemented with e2ee, but if you don’t want those features you still can use secret chats which are as secure. It’s a bit like claiming that coupe car is more secure from rain than a cabriolet. Technically correct, but misses the point.
When it comes to comparing Telegram and WhatsApp there is no room for debate: whatsapp is inferior and should be avoided if you care about privacy and security.

Telegram is also open source apart from server side code which you can’t verify the app is actually running anyway.
 
Signal is always my preferred messenger even with the most limited features but security is the first priority. We have to support Signal to add more features in the app and ensure its availability in future too.
Here’s the thing: Signal can never be feature-rich as Telegram because e2ee does not allow it aka it’s limited in what it can do.

Telegram is balancing it out. And you have a choice: Either go e2ee and lose the feature rich stuff or vice versa.

And according to the FBI report, you are better off using Telegram then a Meta-owned app.
 
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