WAN show - Telegram

Andrei Chiffa · September 2, 2024

Just a couple of clarification details that are not know that well outside specialized communities about Telegram:

1. Without E2E encryption, Telegram operates more akin to Facebook/Twitter/Discord/Mastodon/4chan than an electronic equivalent of the private communication (that's Signal and OpenWhisper protocol communication). The company can see in clear the text and images passing, and anybody can join a channel to see what is happening. In the same way those open social media were expected to moderate their content when it comes to CSAM, and other illicit content, Telegram is expected to do so as well, business model be damned. Privacy is a talking point to Telegram to avoid expectations put on other services

2. Telegram is known to be dumping the metadata and data to Russian secret services, and has been for a while. Here is one of the most clear write-ups on the subject in the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine: https://www.pwnallthethings.com/p/russia-is-spying-on-telegram-chats. More than that - some of the features were historically designed with so little thought for privacy, there effective location tracking tools on by default with no detectability: https://os2int.com/toolbox/applying-effective-osint-to-geo-monitor-russian-military-activity/. Telegram is not only **not** banned in Russia, it's commonly used by the military for their communications, which Roskomnadzor would allow only if they were sure to have access to the contents of the conversations and be the only ones to have access to them. Once again, privacy is a talking point for Telegram, rather than any meaningful feature.

3. Cryptography imports regulations pertain to all the apps that are present in the appstores available to French citizens, and a form is sent by default to the app providers; in part to allow government agencies to issue recommendations regarding the encryption usage. They are somewhat tedious, but have not until now led to any consequences, including for heavily hardened apps: https://os2int.com/toolbox/applying-effective-osint-to-geo-monitor-russian-military-activity/