“Telegram stores all your contacts, groups, media and every message you have ever sent or received in plain text on its own servers.” The criticism that the founder of a popular WhatsApp alternative has made of Telegram is harsh. The app that users have installed on their mobile phone is a window to look at the servers where the data is actually stored. Almost everything that the user sees in the app is also visible to the Telegram operators.
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Telegram no better than WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger
“Telegram has a lot of great features, but when it comes to data protection and data collection, there is no worse choice.” the introduction of criticism on one of the most popular WhatsApp alternatives from Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike. “I find it amazing that after all this time it is still referred to as an ‘encrypted messenger’ in almost all media reports about Telegram,” he says. When it comes to encryption, Telegram is no better than Facebook Messenger.
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The “secret chats” at Telegram are equipped with end-to-end encryption (E2EE). But, according to the criticism of the Signal founder, a security protocol of dubious quality is being used. It is worrying that E2EE is not activated from the start, but Telegram is faking its users the opposite. When it comes to secure communication, according to the Signal boss, even Facebook Messenger is better. The reason: Meta uses a better E2EE protocol and offers more functions in encrypted mode.
Not the first time in the criticism
Those who trust Telegram should continue to give the service access to all of their data, messages, images, contacts and groups, is the conclusion of the Signal founder. The point of an “encrypted messenger” should be that you shouldn’t trust anyone except the person you are communicating with.
Now it should seem logical to many that the founder and boss of one messenger should complain about another. But this is not the first time Telegram has been criticized. Only recently did the Messenger get caught in the crossfire. The Federal Minister of Justice wants to take stronger action against the messenger. Because: For the Federal Office of Justice, Telegram is not just a messenger service like WhatsApp or Signal. Rather, it’s a social network. And just like Facebook, for example, a social network must adhere to the requirements of the Network Enforcement Act. This also includes a simple way of reporting criminal content and agitation. And that has not yet been possible with Telegram.
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In addition, at the beginning of the year, the non-profit organization “The Coalition for a Safer Web” called for the WhatsApp alternative to be discontinued. One had one Lawsuit filed against Apple and wanted the iPhone manufacturer to remove Telegram from the App Store. The charge at the time was: “Telegram is being used as a communication channel for the Russian government and affiliated neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups that are sowing misinformation and racial segregation in the United States and Europe”.
