telegram Founder and billionaire Pavel Durov He is currently in French custody and could face up to 12 serious charges.
His arrest on Sunday has put a renewed spotlight on the legality and safety of Telegram. The messaging app, which has more than 950 million monthly active users, was an early advocate of end-to-end messaging and quickly adopted it as the preferred method of digital communication among members of groups who want to keep things private.
But it may be less secure than rivals like WhatsApp and Signal.
Telegram is the main platform for criminal gangs to communicate, according to investigators, who claim that Durov did not take sufficient measures to crack down on illegal activities, including child pornography, drug sales and fraud.
Telegram is also used by Ukrainian authorities, including the president. Volodymyr Zelenskywas founded to publicly disclose information about the war with Russia, and has also become the preferred platform for Russian citizens to get information about the conflict without Kremlin oversight.
The app was reportedly used to plan the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol, and is a key means of communication for the Palestinian militant group Hamas, NPR reports.
Telegram's popularity stems in part from growing public anger toward big tech companies. Meta Platforms, Inc. MetaFor example, the company (which also owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) has faced lawsuits over how it handles user data.
Read also: How Meta thwarted Iranian hackers' attempts to target Trump and Biden
Telegram, which reportedly gained 70 million new users in a single day, frequently touts its commitment to privacy.
“We don't use your data to serve ads,” the company states in its privacy policy.
For users looking for more privacy, the feature would ostensibly be an advantage over WhatsApp, which also offers end-to-end encryption but which Meta says shares user data with other Meta companies, including Facebook and Instagram.
Meta uses this information, for example, to create advertising campaigns targeted to users.
While end-to-end encryption means WhatsApp can't access the contents of messages, TechRound's report said the app stores user metadata, including “network, browser, ISP, and other identifiers linked to Meta products like Instagram and Facebook.”
These data points can be used to identify a user's physical location, and WhatsApp is required by law to share this information with authorities upon request.
Telegram also stores metadata, which the company says is deleted after up to 12 months if collected. By 2022, Restore Privacy reported, Telegram's privacy policy stated that it had never shared user information with authorities.
However, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported the opposite, reporting that the company “has in several cases disclosed user data to the Federal Criminal Office.”
According to a report from Wired, Telegram's encryption technology is not necessarily the same as WhatsApp or signalis an open-source, non-profit app that also offers end-to-end encryption.
Telegram is less secure than WhatsApp because the app stores all messages on its own cloud by default. According to Forbes, this means that the encryption offered is not end-to-end. Users must select an option called “Secret Chats.” Messages are encrypted by default between the user's phone and Telegram's cloud, and Telegram can decrypt those messages.
An independent analysis by cybersecurity blogger Dhiraj found that even “secret chats” may not be safe, as Telegram does not erase sent files with “self-destruction.”
Is Telegram better for large groups?
Within this larger platform ecosystem, Meta has promoted WhatsApp as a private messaging app, leaving broader social media features to its sister platforms.
Telegram is primarily a private messaging software. As a standalone platform, it does offer certain social media features. Group chats can include up to 200,000 people.
WhatsApp said the number of people who can join a group is limited to 1,024.
Telegram allows users to join groups under a pseudonym without revealing their phone number, giving users a degree of anonymity: group members cannot see the phone number associated with a user account.
Another feature, called “Channels,” allows users to create one-way distribution channels with an unlimited number of subscribers. By allowing large groups, Telegram has gained a reputation as a source of fake news and unverified information.
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