Telegram will now hand over your phone number and IP if you’re a criminal suspect
Telegram will now hand over your phone number and IP if you’re a criminal suspect
Telegram continues trying to repair its reputation.
Telegram continues trying to repair its reputation.
Does anybody really use Telegram for "privacy"? People can't seriously believe that thing is secure. Their FAQ indirectly states that group chats aren't encrypted and explicitly states that "secret chats" are.
We support two layers of secure encryption. Server-client encryption is used in Cloud Chats (private and group chats), Secret Chats use an additional layer of client-client encryption. All data, regardless of type, is encrypted in the same way — be it text, media or files.
I have never recommended Telegram to anybody. It's just like another facebook, AOL, ICQ, or whatever messenger. I actually don't personally know a single telegram user who uses secret chats. They are quite useless. They don't sync across devices.
Oh believe me, group chats are encrypted. Problem is, most of them are public, so that's only to protect them from being exposed to dump/search server side. And yeah, their encryption is not e2e. That's encryption nonetheless.
Telegram's "encryption" does not protect in any way against dump/search server side (outside of secrets chats).
Telegram's "encryption" only protects from your ISP spying, and it's the kind of encryption that everyone implements. Any website that does not implement such encryption would show a big red "Not secure" warning in your browser.
Are you talking about encryption at rest? Regardless, encryption by the server is worthless. It's exactly why admins can delete content in chat rooms.
Edit: that was over the top. My bad. It's not worthless. It's just doesn't really enhance privacy like E2E and I find it disingenuous to say "my chat app is encrypted" when you mean server encryption not E2E.
Maybe client to server but that's not saying much
If Telegram receives a valid order from the relevant judicial authorities that confirms you’re a suspect in a case involving criminal activities that violate the Telegram Terms of Service, we will perform a legal analysis of the request and may disclose your IP address and phone number to the relevant authorities.
Does this mean a warrant? If so, then I don't see an issue, since it complies with our constitutional right to privacy according to the 4th amendment. It's better than I can say for a lot of transactions between private data firms and law enforcement departments.
I don't see that as a problem. Telegram is facilitating a lot of public crime. If they know something bad is talking place they should make some effort to stop it as there was crime happening in public rooms.
TL;DR don't use Telegram