• DaseinPickle
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    9 months ago

    Why would I use non encrypted group chat when I can just use Signal. Why use a product with bad security?

    It doesn’t matter if there is evidence of Telegram spying or not. They have the capability to do it. And with all the companies selling customers data to train AI, I don’t want to risk it. And the best part is, that I don’t have to, because there is Signal and all my friends already use it.

    I don’t mind things being hosted elsewhere as long as it’s encrypted and the host provider do not have the keys. That is not the case with Telegram. If you like Telegram, sure use it. But don’t use Telegram if you value privacy, use it because you like its user experience and know that you are sacrificing privacy. That might be fine for you, but not for me.

    • rdri@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I don’t mind things being hosted elsewhere as long as it’s encrypted and the host provider do not have the keys. That is not the case with Telegram.

      So you would prefer a platform to not have the keys to hosted content but allow that to every group member? That’s not much different from sharing your credit card details with your friends.

      People hate telegram for wrong reasons.

      Problem is that “bad security” is a misleading description of how telegram handles data. I see, people like to say these words when they fear that “my text is going to be fed to AI” or “my files are going to be hosted on a hardware not under my control” and I disagree that these are security issues. The moment you allow someone else to host your content (even text) you should raise an alarm if you are so careful about those things. But you allow that with signal.

      If someone wanted to report on you with signal, they still could. It may fail, not because its chats are e2e encrypted, but because they don’t keep stuff on servers.

      Hosting allows telegram have public communication features. You can basically use it to read news and comment on them. You can save your content, share it with your group and not worry that it will expire at some point or that new members of your group will not be able to see it. You can organize with other people for any activity, public or not.

      So, Telegram provides features that are incompatible with privacy aspects some people want. Signal provides features that prevent it from becoming a platform for mass communication and communities. Both are fine. It’s a mistake to compare them by the same standards.

      • DaseinPickle
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        9 months ago

        So you would prefer a platform to not have the keys to hosted content but allow that to every group member? That’s not much different from sharing your credit card details with your friends.

        That is not how encryption works. Not even remotely. You only share your public key with people you communicate with not your private key. This is not comparable with sharing credit card information. You need to read up on how encryption work.

        And there is no reason Telegram could not host information and still encrypt it. Lots of services do that.

        Look at ProtonMail/ProtonDrive they host mails and files without having any access to it. Look at Keybase, they host all kind of encrypted communications services without having access. Telegram could do it, they choose not to, and that should be a concern.

        • rdri@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          This is not comparable with sharing credit card information.

          How so? Your family would have the same access to your private chats and nothing would stop them from using it with malicious intent.

          How encryption works is not the issue. The issue is with people expecting it to protect content shared with a group.

          Maybe read about how telegram handles data. It’s encrypted.

          • DaseinPickle
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            9 months ago

            What’s your point? The same goes for 1-1 chats. If you don’t trust the people you are communicating with encryption is not going to help you. It just happens that I do trust my friends and family. And it’s not about sharing specific sensitive information, it’s about using technology that prevents mass surveillance. And Telegram is just a bad tool for that. You might as well use Instagram.

            • rdri@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              The same goes for 1-1 chats

              Exactly.

              it’s about using technology that prevents mass surveillance. And Telegram is just a bad tool for that.

              You did not read, sigh.

              What’s your point?

              Already stated above. People put themselves in danger by using public groups to discuss dangerous stuff. You prefer using an app that doesn’t give you such a possibility and call it “secure”. It doesn’t make sense if you never wanted to discuss dangerous stuff or use public groups in the first place.

              • DaseinPickle
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                9 months ago

                I dont know why you keep arguing that encryption should only be used to discuss dangerous stuff. It should be used to discuss private stuff. Like when I sit with my friends and talk, I want it to be private, not recorded in clear text and saved on some server. Not because it’s illegal or sensitive, but because it’s fucking private. And I can’t do that with Telegram, because it’s doesn’t encrypt my information.