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With Signal, the key to encrypt your messages are on your device, and is never sent to the company.
Signal, and anyone who hacks them, or governments that attack them, cannot read your messages. This has been proven in court.
With Telegram, the key to encrypt your messages are on their server.
Telegram, and anyone who hacks them, or governments that attack them, can read all of your messages. This has also been proven in court.
In my view, by far the biggest reason to switch is that Telegram doesn't end-to-end encrypt chats by default.
Yes you can start encrypted chats specifically, but i'll bet 99% of chats on telegram aren't encrypted - meaning whoever has access to the telegram servers can read all the messages.
Signal claims to end-to-end encrypt all chats by default, and if you want to be 100% sure you can in theory read the source code and compile the app yourself. this means signal cannot read any of your messages, even if police asks them to or servers get seized. That's a massive advantage in privacy.
Additionally, E2E chats don't sync between devices (and iirc you can't use them on desktop at all), and group chats can't be encrypted at all.
Signal very recently made syncing between devices possible:
https://signal.org/blog/a-synchronized-start-for-linked-devices/
I was talking about Telegram. Syncing messages between devices has always been possible on Signal, just not the ones from before you connected the extra device.
Telegram doesn't even encrypt group chats. And it doesn't encrypt private convos by default.
Then talk about coding. Non-techies curl up into a ball and die slightly inside as they run for the exits.
Highest form of encryption possible.
Try it
And if that is not enough to kill someones spirit and make them beg for mercy, recite random sections of the GNU Make documentation out of context and watch them go into convolutions.
Wat.jpg
While there may be better options out there, from a purely security standpoint.
The real world, with non-tech people needs solutions that are easy, fast and as close to foolproof as possible.
I choose Signal, because my mum, my sisters and brothers (none of which are tech people) can all go to their app stores and install Signal, it works and it is easy. Signal is private BY DEFAULT, I don't have to remind them to turn on security for each chat, there is voice and video chat for individuals and groups, I can use it to send files. It is really good. Secure communication is their primary goal.
I have been using Signal since it was called TextSecure and I only had one contact using it.
Yes it sucked when they dropped SMS support; but these days about 98% of my messaging goes through Signal. Any SMS is usually from my doctor/dentist/bank.
I never really trusted Telegram, too many compromises. Secure communication is not their primary goal.
The real world, with non-tech people needs solutions that are easy, fast and as close to foolproof as possible.
Nope. Grandma gets a smartphone
Meaning they are hopeless and it's impossible for them to emulate a techie.
It's a fools errand.
Just stop trying to pretend Grandma is something more than completely unimportant and forgettable and hopeless and more likely than not merely a pest.
I'm so tired of entertaining Grandmas.
Telegram rolls their own crypto. That should be the biggest red flag by far. I say this as a telegram user
The encryption method they use was made up by them, and the chats aren't even end to end encrypted by default. Which I would argue is a larger red flag.
This 1 + 1 = 2 logic is boring. It's trying to escape out of a wet paper bag over and over again. Whatever your 1 + 1 = 2 logic is their is another guy who can drive a bus staight thru it. Every single time.
In a year from now you will find out you are completely mistaken and just repeating nonsense. Every freak'n time.
Just for once, do the wrong thing. Make the wrong choice on purpose.
Instead of seeing never ending red flags. Today see purple flags. And tomorrow orange. Cuz why do flags always have to be red?
You can be right or you can have fun.
Do the wrong thing sometimes. Live a little.
Hopefully you aren't driving any buses while you're this high.
It's not never ending red flags. In fact, I see lots of green flags from signal. Telegram, though, that's a different story.
i'm a milk tea addict. Carry around cinnamon and nutmeg. And hang out on github.
These are horrible vices. But no excuse for having divergent opinions.
Telegram is fine.
Signal will be gone tomorrow and you'll lose your network. Moving networks from one platform to another is impossible. So we end up creating new networks.
Currently i'm making a network of Python coders i've collaborated with. The communication medium is not consistent nor ideal.
Hate email with a passion. So of course most the communication is going over plain text email. Tried pushing for communication on plain text mastodon.
Signal pretends not to.
I prefer Telegram's honesty.
We are Telegram and we are here to help. And to make it more fun we will send all your communications to Russia for a change.
Oh man! Where do i sign up /nosarc
I can't speak about telegram, but signal is absolutely not secure to use. Its a US-based service (that must adhere to NSLs), and requires phone numbers (meaning your real identity in the US).
Matrix, XMPP, or SimpleX are all decentralized, and don't require US hosting.
You are right but
we like doing the wrong thing over and over again. And being surprised, each and every time, when it turns out to be wrong. Never picking up onto the repeating simple pattern.
1111111111111 what's the next number ... errrr Signal! That's it you got it. Good job.
Embrace the idiocracy!
This is why Telegram is awesome.
Eventually you will come around and realize how hopeless humanity is and embrace that it is well beyond hope.
And then you will have a larger network and enjoy each and every one of them.
This entire article is guessing at hypothetical backdoors. Its like saying that AES is backdoored because the US government chose it as the standard defacto symmetrical encryption.
There is no proof that Signal has done anything nefarious at all.
So if I understand it Signal has your phone number but only logs sign up date and last activity date. So yes they can say this person has Signal and last used it on date X. Other than that no information.
Matrix doesn't require a phone number but has no standard on logging activity so it's up to the server admin what they log, and they could retain ip address, what users are talking in what, rooms, etc. and E2EE is not required.
I think both have different approaches. I'm just trying to understand. On one hand you have centralized system that has a standard to minimize logs or decentralized system that must be configured to use E2EE and to remove logs.
SimpleX is taking a lot of venture capital money which makes it just slightly suspect, imho. Those guys usually want a return of some kind on their investment. I simply don't trust the motives of technocrats like Jack Dorsey.
The Matrix Foundation, on the other hand, seems a lot more democratic in governance and stewardship of the protocol.
Thank you for your post!
I want you to know your effort and knowledge is appreciated, this will help future readers make better decisions.โจ
But the situation stands that my friend and their friends are not as technologically literate as we are, and I would rather have them on something easy and secured than unsecured at all, especially from my experience with getting communities to use such decentralized platforms you mentioned.
Telegram for random public chatter/file storage(with password lock), talking to strangers without giving them your number. Signal for personal/private conversations.
Spread your data (encrypted or not) around, so a single entity doesn't own your digital life. Your device can handle 2 apps and don't give them permissions willy nilly. Geez, every one of these posts just wants to start a flame war.
In Telegram, you never have to expose your phone number. If you like walking into traps then of course you can.
But can make minimal efforts to not be a degenerate avoiding this obvious easily avoidable trap.
How to avoid exposing your phone number
Make a group called i'm not a complete utter idiot. Whenever you have a friend wanting to connect, make a group link, send it to them, have them join. After joining have them send a message in the group. Just, "Hi". Nothing more. Less is more.
Look for that message and click on the person's name. You are now connected. Send them a personal message, "Hi!".
You can also add them as a contact without sharing your phone number.
Your friend will probably be a degenerate and expose their phone number. Teach them how to go into settings to always hide it.
Try not to call them a degenerate, degenerates hate that.
Also try not to think of them as a degenerate, they will already know that and be proud of it and not understand why you don't share their enthusiasm.
So control what thoughts you project into the ether. If you have to change the topic in your mind to something involving flowers singing birds and clouds.
That's a neat trick, thanks for sharing
Your welcome. Use it in good health. And please excuse my colorful prose.
There is many many comments on Telegram bleeding the phone number. And only one comment saying that doesn't have to be the case.
If you have a safe, but cannot open it, do you own the contents inside? Signal has no way of accessing your data, I would argue they don't own it.
Telegram is not end to end encrypted. Repeating it's not. Only private mode or something like that is.
It really depends on who your friend is, and who they are trying to defenf against.
If the US ( or Russian / Chinese) government really wants to access an internet-connected device, they can do it; what app you are using doesn't even matter. For example, most people use the default Google keyboard, which could be compromised.
If the concern is about local goons / employers / coworkers, then both Telegram and Signal are more than enough to stop them prying.
As for whether to use Signal or Telegram, Signal has end to end encryption enabled by default, while in Telegram you have to switch it on for each chat. On the other hand, Telegram has the best UI among messaging apps hands down.
Pegasus really negates a lot of security too.