Technology @lemmy.world columbus @lemmy.world 1w ago

All of Telegram's Lies About Privacy

donald.cat All of Telegram's Lies About Privacy

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,...

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I wish people at least pretended to care about Catalan language and culture when they bought a .cat domain.
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.
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
- 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.
- Signal
  
  Yeah, the glaring problem of having to share your phone number is gone too:
  https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/6712070553754-Phone-Number-Privacy-and-Usernames
  
  They still don’t have backups on iOS which is a deal-breaker for me.
  
  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.
  
  I couldnt find a working Ubuntu touch app last i tried to use it
- A platform that values my privacy? Or stickers? Tough choice, I guess, except Signal has both.
  
  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.
  
  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.
- Matrix does have stickers
- I am enjoying SimpleX chat
- Can you elaborate on your last sentence? Is the US more or less trustworthy than alternatives?
  
  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
- Stickers are pointless if I have no one to send them to. So I stay in telegram.
Signal didn't work for some back in 2021/2020 and wasn't supported on old devices, now I'm stuck with Telegram.

At least I'm not part of FB's social graph and have some friends that now use something other than WhatsApp
- 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.
  
  There was a surge of signups when WhatsApp changed its ToS to allow businesses to record/save conversations. Signal had issues with signing up. At that time it also didn't support LG G4 phones anymore.
  
  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.

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