- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.ml
- technology@beehaw.org
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.ml
- technology@beehaw.org
- technology@lemmy.world
Is Telegram really that bad and should i look more into it or is sticking to signal really the best option?
Telegram is legitimately bad, it’s only saving grace being that it is STILL BETTER THAN DISCORD! It’s main “Sin” is rolling it’s own Encryption Algorithm; which has been proven to be less than 100% airtight and secure.
Sadly your average user does not care about privacy above all else. They only care about privacy in as much as it can factually and emotionally affect their daily lives. TL;DR: You have to incentivize them to care, and they will often refuse to move, or outright dislike a platform, if a specific feature they love or depend on doesn’t exist, even when it is 100% not critical to the application’s function.
Sticking to Signal is really the best option
Telegram is closed source on the server side. I don’t trust it. Lots of better options:
https://alternativeto.net/software/telegram/?license=opensource
We have a website too https://www.privacyguides.org/en/real-time-communication which has decisions based on a privacy and security related context.
One of the main requirements there is that recommended instant messengers undergo auditing.
If you can.actually get people to switch, you should look into simplex chat. It has a lot of really good features, you can run a CLI application on any servers you might have to send you notifications really easily, and it’s being rather actively developed. A quick look at their website will show you how dedicated to privacy they are.
Signal considered the best between those 3 apps.
- Signal have E2EE. Facebook decided to copy the idea to Whatsapp. AFAIK, attackers have always gained access only by other methods.
- Telegram created their own protocol, MTProto. E2E is only enabled on private chats. By default private chat exist only on the device they were created on. So a lot of people don’t really use them.
So, in terms of encryption alone, Signal/Whatapp are safer.
I don’t know about you, but for me, the last company I’ll trust with my information is Facebook.
So if you can, use Signal.
If not, decide who you trust more. Telegram or Facebook.
Just to clarify. I thought WA had e2e encryption before Signal but got bought out by Facebook, so Signal developed including with e2e encryption and open source code (at least initially) as an alternative. Is that correct?
The Signal protocol (née TextSecure protocol) was created by Moxie Marlinspike and Trevor Perrin and Signal messenger (née TextSecure) was built from the ground up with e2ee. WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook without e2ee and Moxie later worked with them to integrate the Signal protocol for WhatsApp. Hope that clarifies.