Despite Telegram's origins, its approach to users' security has privacy advocates worried. One thing that Telegram now offers to all users is the ability to âdisappearâ messages or set remote deletion deadlines. That enables users to have much more control over how long people can access what youâre sending them. Given that Russian law enforcement officials are reportedly (via Insider) stopping people in the street and demanding to read their text messages, this could be vital to protect individuals from reprisals. Although some channels have been removed, the curation process is considered opaque and insufficient by analysts. It is unclear who runs the account, although Russia's official Ministry of Foreign Affairs Twitter account promoted the Telegram channel on Saturday and claimed it was operated by "a group of experts & journalists." If you initiate a Secret Chat, however, then these communications are end-to-end encrypted and are tied to the device you are using. That means itâs less convenient to access them across multiple platforms, but you are at far less risk of snooping. Back in the day, Secret Chats received some praise from the EFF, but the fact that its standard system isnât as secure earned it some criticism. If youâre looking for something that is considered more reliable by privacy advocates, then Signal is the EFFâs preferred platform, although that too is not without some caveats.
from id