Probably another point is that the encryption for Matrix/Element has undergone multiple audits, one in 2016 and another one of their newer rust library. Whereas telegram just has not. There was this also a not too long ago. MTProto is also used nowhere else, whereas a lot of encryption has been influenced by the Double Ratchet which is well understood.

The other thing worth noting is that Matrix is the foundation for other products which many governments use for secure communications.

Despite you using the foss client of telegram there is no source for the server, signal has published it's code.

Depends on your goals.

For casual shit like sending files to yourself, bullshiting with memes, or stuff like that, the unknown factor of telegram doesn't matter.

But it is an unknown. We don't know what their server code looks like. So you can't trust that it isn't doing things other than what it is supposed to.

It's a matter of preferences tbh.

Telegram straight up lies about sharing data with governments: https://restoreprivacy.com/telegram-sharing-user-data/

The privacy policy doesn't matter if no data is saved unencrypted or with no metatdata.

The only thing Signal saves (which is proofed by a law case afaik) is the phone number and the account creation date.

I find Telegram to be at least as trustworthy as Signal. Signal has a lot of red/orange flags that bother me. For example, Telegram is not based in the United States, whereas Signal is.

My account was compromised once, though I have 2FA enabled. I assume that I was accessing my account from a browser on a windows pc, it had virus but not 100% sure. Someone was able to access it, change my name send multiple crypto related links to users in bulk.

It contained years of chat history with my wife. I was able to recover the account. But I deleted all the chat history.

I still use it to get alerts from various automated scripts I use, mostly for the bots with free API access. No personal data go in there.

The mistake might be from my side. But if someone takes over your account, you lose everything.

So, I have no way of actually verifying the validity of this, but, when I deployed (former US military) we were told that Russia and China had cracked telegram and WhatsApp and that signal was the only authorized encrypted messaging app.

E2EE is the most important protection for your messages. Otherwise, it means that all of your messages can be accessed just like a word file in their server. It’s up to you

I read long ago of criticisms about encryption algorithm by experts. Instead of using existing standards they baked their own algorithms. They were not recognised cryptograph experts. Afaik, they improved it over time. But there might still be issues.

In sum, trust is not your friend and up to you without E2EE.

@remindme@mstdn.social in 1 week

What keeps me from using Telegram is the server side is closed source; they have been known to work with governments; and been willing to censor content. There are enough better options that I have zero use for them.

Thanks everyone on sharing your thoughts ln this! This has been really helpful!

I see some saying their policy says one thing about cooperation with law enforcement but they seem to have been doing just the opposite, reducing the trust overall in the rest of their promises (e.g. their data collection).

Some compared to the closer to ideal apps such as Signal or Matrix in terms of privacy.

I'm curious to also hear what do you do to compromise to keep your social connections? The practical side of navigating the current state of the Internet and people's social life.

It's been an uphill battle with asking folks to use Signal, and Telegram seem to be better than giving out info to Meta.