Is Telegram really that bad and should i look more into it or is sticking to signal really the best option?

  • people_are_cute@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    Well, movie pirates use it so it must be safe! /s

    Telegram has a lot of pros, but it can be safe only as long as you and every person in your circle sets it as such. Chats are not encrypted by default, you have to set it in group settings. Your phone number isn’t hidden by default, you have to manually set its visibility to “Nobody”. It even asks to let it pull your contacts, Facebook-style. There might be several such gimmicks, but generally they are easy to notice and control.

    The biggest advantage(?) Telegram has is that everything is saved server-side instead of your phone. So you don’t need to keep having to back up your chats and be scared of losing everything if you lost your phone.

    • 14th_cylon@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      The biggest advantage(?) Telegram has is that everything is saved server-side

      yeah, having all your secret data on a server you know nothing about is massive advantage 😂

    • caglel@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There is an standard client-server encryption in Telegram. If you want e2e encrypted chat, then use Secret chats. Almost all messengers nowadays use client server encryption. So the biggest problem is not man-in-the-middle attack, but physical access to device by someone and malware installed via breaches.

      • __ol@mastodon.social
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        1 year ago

        @caglel @people_are_cute The standard encryption is utter trash. First, they never needed to make it. Ever. Second, it was audited and laughed at by everyone. Third, even after they fixed the issues, it’s still laughed at by everyone.

    • fuckyou_m8@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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      1 year ago

      What is the problem in asking for pulling your contact list? Isn’t it to check which of your contacts also have telegram?

      • constantokra@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        Pulling your contacts lets it get a pretty good fingerprint of who you are, from who you talk to. It can already get that from who you actually message, but it’s getting a lot more information about you from pulling the whole list and not just who you talk to through telegram.

        • fuckyou_m8@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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          1 year ago

          I understand, but if you are new to this conversation app, right after installing it would be good to know which of your contacts your are able to talk to there. I don’t see asking one by one and adding them manually a good solution, maybe there is another one I don’t see

          • Pablo@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Well, I’d say they can do that as long as it stays on my device like with Signal.

            • fuckyou_m8@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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              1 year ago

              Signal still have access to your contact list at first, they simply not store it anywhere. Which is good for me

            • constantokra@lemmy.one
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              1 year ago

              How does it stay on your device? I’m notified if a contact of mine uses signal. That means if someone has my.number in their phone signal will let them know I use signal. I don’t really want someone to be able to confirm that I use a service.

              • Pablo@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                It just does. Your phone can check by itself if someone is on signal or not - no upload of contacts needed.

            • Awry@lemmy.one
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              1 year ago

              You were calling someone cringe for asking why Telegram isn’t secure. Now here you are thinking your Signal messages aren’t sitting in an NSA server somewhere in front of all these people. You’re delusional, mate. You’re like a step above a script kiddy in regards to technical understanding. You’re so close to understanding the reality that you have no data privacy, but you’re still so far…