4 ms·

Why do you use Telegram if you're concerned about privacy?

lucb1e 7y ago
I wonder the same. The reason I use Telegram is because it's the only thing I can convince a significant enough number of friends and family to move over to because of the superior user experience and non-Facebook, not because it's the most privacy-friendly solution out there. If I could choose a platform, it would probably be Wire, but the UX is pretty bad and I don't see my mom using that.
- newscracker 7y ago
  I thought Wire seems to suffer from the “Electron curse” (of being sluggish) on desktop. Then I realized that the app is slow on all platforms, including mobile. Any chat that has more than a few images brings the client to a crawl when scrolling. The company behind Wire also focuses on paying users (the solution targeted for teams and companies). So getting support is close to futile.
  - lucb1e 7y ago
    The business support is also not what one might hope for. The couple Euros we pay per month per user is not enough to get a few minutes of a developer's time so it's very similar to not having any support.
nunorbatista 7y ago
Telegram changed in the last couple of years. You can choose between secret chats (e2e encrypted) and normal which are just user-server storage-user encrypted. End-to-end voice calls is also a feature. If you ask me between the Google / Facebook messaging apps (Whatsapp, Messenger, etc) and Telegram, today I'd say Telegram has an advantage because it has a good UI, works across devices and the desktop client works like a charm. For someone that wants to ditch the Google / Facebook environment and be sure their grandmother can use it, I don't see much better options. It's not as faulty as it used to be, but I see the old times made a reputation for it.
- codethief 7y ago
  > You can choose between secret chats (e2e encrypted) and normal which are just user-server storage-user encrypted. I am aware of that, though I think in the second case it's better to pretend messages are not encrypted at all on the server side since mere storage encryption can be circumvented all too easily. Anyway, having the choice between encryption and no encryption is exactly the problem. How many Telegram users choose e2e-encrypted chats? AFAIK you have to enable this for every conversation separately, right?
  - nunorbatista 7y ago
    Yes, you would still have to create a new "Secret chat" to have the e2e. The reason for that is explored here: https://telegra.ph/Why-Isnt-Telegram-End-to-End-Encrypted-by-Default-08-14 https://telegra.ph/Why-Isnt-Telegram-End-to-End-Encrypted-by... It's their approach and I'm personally ok with it. Due to my friends I use FB messenger a lot and they say it will take years to be e2e encrypted, so I believe it's a fair compromise from Telegram.

I wonder the same. The reason I use Telegram is because it's the only thing I can convince a significant enough number of friends and family to move over to because of the superior user experience and non-Facebook, not because it's the most privacy-friendly solution out there. If I could choose a platform, it would probably be Wire, but the UX is pretty bad and I don't see my mom using that.

newscracker 7y ago
I thought Wire seems to suffer from the “Electron curse” (of being sluggish) on desktop. Then I realized that the app is slow on all platforms, including mobile. Any chat that has more than a few images brings the client to a crawl when scrolling. The company behind Wire also focuses on paying users (the solution targeted for teams and companies). So getting support is close to futile.
- lucb1e 7y ago
  The business support is also not what one might hope for. The couple Euros we pay per month per user is not enough to get a few minutes of a developer's time so it's very similar to not having any support.

nunorbatista 7y ago

Telegram changed in the last couple of years. You can choose between secret chats (e2e encrypted) and normal which are just user-server storage-user encrypted. End-to-end voice calls is also a feature. If you ask me between the Google / Facebook messaging apps (Whatsapp, Messenger, etc) and Telegram, today I'd say Telegram has an advantage because it has a good UI, works across devices and the desktop client works like a charm. For someone that wants to ditch the Google / Facebook environment and be sure their grandmother can use it, I don't see much better options. It's not as faulty as it used to be, but I see the old times made a reputation for it.

codethief 7y ago
> You can choose between secret chats (e2e encrypted) and normal which are just user-server storage-user encrypted. I am aware of that, though I think in the second case it's better to pretend messages are not encrypted at all on the server side since mere storage encryption can be circumvented all too easily. Anyway, having the choice between encryption and no encryption is exactly the problem. How many Telegram users choose e2e-encrypted chats? AFAIK you have to enable this for every conversation separately, right?
- nunorbatista 7y ago
  Yes, you would still have to create a new "Secret chat" to have the e2e. The reason for that is explored here: https://telegra.ph/Why-Isnt-Telegram-End-to-End-Encrypted-by-Default-08-14 https://telegra.ph/Why-Isnt-Telegram-End-to-End-Encrypted-by... It's their approach and I'm personally ok with it. Due to my friends I use FB messenger a lot and they say it will take years to be e2e encrypted, so I believe it's a fair compromise from Telegram.