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korrents · piece

Is Telegram really an encrypted messaging app?

Matthew Green · 25 Aug 2024

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Encryption people have to switch on protects almost nobody; what protects people is what a service turns on for everyone.

Their wordsTo be honest though, it doesn’t matter how secure something is if people aren’t actually using it.

Also said by Moxie Marlinspike

Read the piece on blog.cryptographyengineering.com ↗

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Matthew Green did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    Telegram is not an encrypted messenger in the sense that matters, because it does not end-to-end encrypt conversations by default.

    Their wordsTelegram clearly fails to meet this stronger definition for a simple reason: it does not end-to-end encrypt conversations by default.

  2. Our reading

    Almost every one-to-one Telegram chat, and every group chat, is readable on Telegram’s own servers.

    Their wordsThe practical impact is that the vast majority of one-on-one Telegram conversations — and literally every single group chat — are probably visible on Telegram’s servers, which can see and record the content of all messages sent between users.

  3. Our reading

    Telegram urges people away from default-encrypted messengers while refusing to build the features that would encrypt its own users.

    Their wordsIndeed, it no longer feels amusing to see the Telegram organization urge people away from default-encrypted messengers, while refusing to implement essential features that would widely encrypt their own users’ messages.

  4. Our reading

    Encryption people have to switch on protects almost nobody; what protects people is what a service turns on for everyone.

    Mental modelPositioning

    Their wordsTo be honest though, it doesn’t matter how secure something is if people aren’t actually using it.

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