I see i can find a foss version on f-droid, and that’s something not a lot of social networks can have, i don’t really like all the crypto bullshit and ads testing they’ve been up to lately, but still looks better to me compared to what Reddit have done lately or what other platforms have done in these years…
I don’t know about their privacy feature, but i wouldn’t trust their chat as for as far as i knew they were not end to end encrypted some time ago (except for secret chats).
Anyway it still looks like one of the at least still decent platforms out there, or am i wrong?
I put it in the same boat as WhatsApp. Better than SMS, but I’ll be sticking to Signal.
+many for Signal.
Telegram is neither private nor secure. Its not encrypted bu default. Normal texts as well as group chat is stored unencrypted on its servers.
For everyday use with friends, family and work (assuming these folks already have your number), Signal may be the best thing out there as its open source both on server and app levels. Signal is also end to end encrypted (E2EE) with decryption keys stored on device.
For anonymous communications Session and SimpleX may be better as they are both E2EE and doesnt requie a phone number as an identifier.
Just chuck out Whatsapp, Telegram and all the other closed sourced garbage apps.
What about Matrix?
Unless you want to run communities there I wont bother with it. I feel everything from setting up accounts (anonymously) to getting people to join, works better in SimpleX and Session. I’d even be happy using SimpleX as my everyday messenger. Matrix is a little clunky and the fact that all conversations get duplicated on the primary Matrix servers is cause for concern.
With Signal and SimpleX, servers are used only for relaying messages beteeen users - messages which are encrypted on the device.
In the end you are going to be sacrificing something, and the last thing you’d want to sacrifice is privacy and security.
If I was pushed to list my go to, it’ll be Signal for chats with people I know: because its open source, battle-tested against adversities, and can be set up by anyone who understands how ro use Whastsapp / Telegram.
For communitties (and even as a daily text solution beteeen collaborators or anyone you dont want to exchange numbers with), I’d use SimpleX as it has a lot of in-built anonymity and decent privacy (so far - its a fairly new project).
Theres just too much fuzziness round Matrix for anyone to trust it.
Signal is also end to end encrypted (E2EE) with decryption keys stored on device.
And how decryption key gets to other device 👀?
It’s a “basic” Diffie-Hellman key exchange that’s been a solved issue since before mobile phones were even invented
[0].Think of it like this:
I give you a lock that only I have they key to open it. You can secure (read encrypt) any message with it by placing it in a box and locking it with my lock, send me the box and - because I’m the only person in the world with the key to open it, we can say you’re sending me a secured (encrypted) message. It doesn’t matter if anyone can intercept this lock because all they’ll be able to do is send me secure messages from their inbox. Now, in the digital world this lock we’re giving each other is a cryptographic “public key” that you can lock a million things with (messages, images, videos) and send them to me via the internet. We can thus exchange public keys and securely message each other.
I’ve simplified it a lot, as Signal actually uses something called the “Extended Triple Diffie-Hellman” (X3DH)
[1], but I hope this explains how it works. You can read more about it here[2][1]https://www.signal.org/docs/specifications/x3dh/[2]https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/45963/diffie-hellman-key-exchange-in-plain-english
Signal is also end to end encrypted (E2EE) with decryption keys stored on device.
And how decryption key gets to other device 👀?
Being encryption needs to be enabled highlights how Telegram is trying to increase users who want privacy & security but don’t exactly know how to go about it. Granted, the option makes it a step up above sms, but that’s not saying a lot…
Just use Signal or Matrix.
It’s one step better than whatsapp, fb messenger and viber. I use Signal with my family and friends, it’s a middle ground between the big ones and XMPP.
I prefer SimpleX to Signal, Telegram and Matrix tbh.
It’s better than Whatsapp & Co since it’s FOSS. It’s worse than Matrix and XMPP since those are federated (and Matrix has e2ee). It’s about tied with Signal, Signal is FOSS but hostile to third-party clients, in exchange it has encryption on by default.
Telegram is known to occasionally hand out users’ data in extraordinary circumstances, but that’s pretty rare overall. It’s not the choice for super sensitive communications, but it’s decent as a better alternative for SNS. It’s very popular in Russia because it has public one-to-many channels and unlike VK and etc it mostly doesn’t censor stuff. I’ll never use Whatsapp, I have no reason to use Signal because nobody I know uses it and Matrix is better, Telegram is alright in my book.
Also it’s possible to buy anonymous telegram accounts, not sure that’s possible for Signal.
Telegram is known to occasionally hand out users’ data in extraordinary circumstances
Source? And what circumstances? AFAIK it never happened.
Thanks, though the article also says that Telegram states they didn’t share any data because they have never stored it (like IP).
I like telegram but russians.
Still better than using WhatsApp.
I like telegram but russians.
You know, I have friends that say this, but at the same time they’re stuck to tiktok like crazy…
You may want to read this, especially the part about what happened with the start of the Ukraine war. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Durov
I’ve skimmed through the whole thing, but I’m unsure what you’re referring to. A little help, please?
On 16 April 2014, Durov publicly refused to hand over the personal data of Ukrainian protesters to Russia’s security agencies and block Alexei Navalny’s page on VK.[8] Instead, he posted the relevant orders on his own VK page,[29][30] claiming that the requests were unlawful.
On 21 April 2014, Durov was dismissed as CEO of VK. The company claimed it was acting on his letter of resignation a month earlier that he failed to recall.[8][31] Durov then claimed the company had been effectively taken over by Vladimir Putin’s allies,[31][32] suggesting his ouster was the result of both his refusal to hand over personal details of users to federal law enforcement and his refusal to hand over the personal details of people who were members of a VK group dedicated to the Euromaidan protest movement.[31][32] Durov then left Russia and stated that he had “no plans to go back”[32] and that “the country is incompatible with Internet business at the moment”.[8]
Thanks!
So you didn’t read it initially, you lazy pumpkin?
As I said, I skimmed through it and wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking for.
I wouldn‘t use it for messaging, but as a social media platform it seems to be working pretty well.
I use Telegram the most, as I have most of my contacts on it. Secret chat is there for those that I want to be sure to be private. I have no issues with them as they have proven not to be sharing their data, or selling it (through the absence of that ever coming to light - unlike WhatsApp metadata passed up to Facebook). They are streets ahead on features, and their broadcast channels are really useful. I also push my blog posts to a channel that I have on Telegram. But like others have said, I also have Signal, Matrix, XMPP, etc as I have different friends on different networks. The only messengers I don’t have are Meta owned ones, as we have clearly seen what happens to our metadata there in repeated occasions.
My opion is I won’t go near it. Matrix via Elementor it’s many other clients is for me and my family.
Telegram is more popular than WhatsApp in several global south countries. I use it with friends around the world, it has better functionality than WhatsApp. I’m not a fan of Meta so as far as “it just works” messaging apps go, Telegram is probably the best alternative to WhatsApp.
Nothing that requires your phone number to register or has centralized backend could be considered privacy-friendly.
Privacy is not the same as anonymity.
