Hi :) I know that Telegram is not save and not a good messenger if you are a privacy-geek. Sadly some parts of my family still think so. I brougth up the arguments, that they are cooperating with Russia, that they or closed-source on the server-side and that e2ee is not on by default and only available for 1-on-1 chats.
My question now is, if you gals and guys might have some other arguments or sources I could use.
I don’t want to convince anyone to switch away from Telegram (because I am no missionary :D) I just want people to understand the risks of using Telegram.
Can we be real for a minute though?
It’s still better than not having it as an option.
By telegram existing, it diversifies the non private messaging landscape. It’s obviously not better than actually secure and/or private services, but the more options that are out there, the less centralization there is, which is a net positive.
You just have to be aware of its limitations and don’t use it for anything significant. In that regard it’s no worse than something like discord.
You already covered the warnings about not trusting it for privacy or security, so that’s really the beat you can do in informing people. Once you’ve done your due diligence for the people you care about, you gotta let them do what they’re gonna do. It’s either that or go hard and refuse to communicate on anything other than the services you deem best for your preferences and hope for the best
It’s a great idea for the Right! They’re too stupid to notice that group chats are not encrypted and they conspire to commit crimes right out in the open. Don’t take that away from us!
There are Ukrainian and Russian ties… AFAIK it’s used heavily on both sides of the conflict. The founder had some commentary as to why the stance they’ve taken is the stance they’ve taken.
His mother is also from Ukraine herself:
… and Pavel is a French / UAE citizen (as additionally demonstrated by the French government holding him for questioning). The “Telegram is a Russian puppet” arguments are fairly weak.
Telegram is not just IM. Open the search and search for channels. Get creative, they have keyword filters. City name is always a good start. Check the channels with ❄️ and 🍄 emojis. This is where people are scammed for drugs. Maybe sometimes not scams.
A lot happens on Telegram, and it’s right behind that little search icon.
reading my post would’ve help ;)
Is it true that Telegram doesn’t encrypt group chats at all? Maybe that would get their attention?
My biggest criticism of Telegram (but not the only one) is that they use homebrew crypto. Of course, I don’t know if your family would understand why that’s bad.
It’s true. I’m also really annoyed with rising telegram premium stuff. It used to be just a nifty addon, now it’s everywhere.
what exactly do you mean by “telegram premium stuff”?
Basically more perks which honestly is just more useless bloatware imo.
How about: Signal is better? Though, they recently were caught with some unencrypted shit on the desktop client.
Sauce? I tried searching and couldn’t find anything (at least not on the first page of results). Thanks.
Basically, anyone who can read your home directory could decrypt your Signal database. That’s about typical of traditional desktop applications, but questionable for security-oriented software. Mac OS and (sometimes) Linux have more robust credential management options, and Signal signaled (yes, pun intended) its intent to adopt them.
I feel that if someone can read your home directory, signal isn’t your worst worry. However, it’s still an issue and I’m glad they’re going to move to better security.