this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
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Telegram is lying to you about privacy (donald.cat)
submitted 3 months ago by columbus@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] wuffah@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Ever since the CEO of Telegram was basically lured to Paris, arrested, then read the riot act for Telegram’s non-cooperation with French authorities, the company has been responding to warrants and downplaying its “E2EE” features. Expect them to have a fully accessible backdoor for LE.

By the way, don’t forget about that Bitlocker backdoor that “mysteriously” doesn’t affect Windows 10.

The EU and US digital surveillance states have been tightening their grip on encryption and online anonymity for years now. “Age verification” is just the latest push.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

More people need to understand this, Telegram was never trustworthy to begin with.

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 months ago

They spent years lying about their encryption algorithms too acting like they're more secure than Signal when they never were

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In the same class as any app store based communication software.

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Signal can be installed from an apk from their site

https://signal.org/android/apk/

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And can you review the source for this APK?

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yes, you can even confirm the published source reproduce this specific apk

https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/blob/main/reproducible-builds/README.md

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Wow. Not what I expected in the Android world.

[–] sunbeam60@feddit.uk 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I’m not sure they are lying. Yes, they’re not E2E but I don’t think they claim to be by default, do they?

I’ve got a large group of friends there, since high school. We presume everything we write is available to the Russians so we never talk work details or share secrets. It would be insane otherwise.

We’ve tried to organise a move to Signal, but honestly its client is nowhere near as polished or feature rich as Telegram.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I’m not sure they are lying. Yes, they’re not E2E but I don’t think they claim to be by default, do they?

they claim to be "encrypted". if I just make a new chat it will not be encrypted. this is false advertising. furthermore this highly advertised feature has artificial limitations, like that desktop clients can't use it. it also cannot he used with group chats. so much for being "encrypted".

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's just your misunderstanding of the term. The chat is encrypted, no lies about it, it's not end-to-end encrypted. Last time I checked they were quite explicit about that.
So far, Telegram worked exactly as it was advertised, it's just people for some reason have weird ideas about what words mean and how stuff should work, but that's not on them to be honest.
Plenty to criticize Telegram for, but lack of privacy isn't it.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's just your misunderstanding of the term. The chat is encrypted, no lies about it, it's not end-to-end encrypted.

I was pretty sure someone is going to bring this up! "It uses HTTPS so its Encrypted™, you are just too dumb to comprehend it!"

well, yes, point me to a chat service that is not encrypted on the wire nowadays. I still think it is false advertising, because their clear intention is to make the user think their service is somehow more secure than others, while that is not the case. why would you advertise privacy and encryption, if not for arguing that you the provider cant read messages?
Ironically the owner of telegram is repeatedly posting on his channel about how much more secure telegram is over whatsapp, which is an actual end to end encrypted messaging app (but with other problems, like questionable key handling)

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You know, if you end-to-end encrypted, but mishandle keys, it's actually demonstrably worse than if you client-to-server encrypted but there was no confirmed cases of anything leaked.
Nobody is misleading you because you have deeply held ideas on what words should mean.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Nobody is misleading you because you have deeply held ideas on what words should mean.

if your definition of encrypted means telegram is an encrypted messenger, than "encrypted" is literally nothing more than a meaningless buzzword, since all messaging services do some kind of encryption.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

My definition of "encrypted" means that something is encrypted. You know, using cryptography.
Your definition of encrypted means that something is end-to-end encrypted, with only two corresponding people having keys. And we actually have a term for that, it's end-to-end encryption.
I understand where you're coming from, but only one of us using this word correctly.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

what do you think, are those companies committing fraud that sell water with "extra H2O", or with "more ions", just to put themselves in a better light?

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Do you think McDonald's shouldn't write "careful, hot" on hot products, even if it's not literally boiling and you wish it to be boiling?

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"hot" does not mean "boiling". nobody even assumes it to mean that.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Well, if you know the original McDonald's hot coffee story, it started exactly because McDonald's meant boiling, while the customers expected merely hot.
That's why precision of the language is important, ans that's why it's wrong to expect the company to use your imprecise definition of the word, that's how you get third degree burns from a cap of coffee.

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Signal (assuming you live in a country that hasn’t blacklisted them for refusing to install backdoors).

[–] lepinkainen@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Signal still doesn’t support bots and is shit for bigger groups

Good for 1-10 friends and 1on1 chats tho

[–] Coldcell@sh.itjust.works -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Are these negatives?

[–] lepinkainen@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

People criticising Telegram have no idea how big some of the channels there are. They’re stupid big. Like full ass Discord server but with one channel big.

That needs automated moderation tools - bots as well as built in tools to manage lager groups.

Signal doesn’t do that at all. It’s a good replacement for group texts, not communities.

And for me personally: missing first party bot support makes it a complete non-starter.

[–] Coldcell@sh.itjust.works -1 points 3 months ago

I mean, fair enough on you opinions, but it sounds as if all you're saying is this one particular messaging tool doesn't fit your requirements?

As I see it, (and I may be speculating and/or wrong), supporting bots might worsen some aspects of other users experience. If there necessitates a worsening of other users' experience in order to support what you'd want to do, at what point should you just use a different app?

There's little reasoning for catering to a niche use like huge channels and bots, and tbh that sounds like a dreadful experience to me. Dev time is costly, feature creep is a killer, I don't see lack of support for unwanted (to me) features as a negative.

[–] flamingleg@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

it is not hosted in the US or a country affiliated with the US, which makes it infinitely more secure from the point of view of sovereign risk

[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The Telegram servers are in Miami, Amsterdam, and Singapore, so some data is still stored in the U.S.

In any case, it wouldn't be any better to have data stored in a country like China or Russia.

[–] OccasionallyFeralya@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Chinese and Russian authorities can’t steal me from my home and imprison and torture me for the rest of my life

[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 months ago

No, but they do that to plenty of their own citizens.

Better something from a non-authoritarian country that doesn't also happen to be in the Five Eyes intelligence network.