Telegram, wait...what?

@Stephie Good to know!! We use Signal for encrypted messaging.

@ElwoodBlues The problem is that Signal is closely linked with WhatsApp and that it is based in the US. I don't trust the NSA not to pressure those companies either to provide a backdoor access.

It would not be the first US company to have provided a secret backdoor for the NSA to snoop around.

@ElwoodBlues Is it end-to-end encrypted? Do they have their own protocol?

@helenS Yes, Signal is end-to-end, can do voice as well as texts. They have their own protocol that was audited twice in the late teens.

Wikipedia sez

@ElwoodBlues Good to know – thank you 🌷

@Stephie Durov lives in Dubai and holds UAE citizenship and French citizenship. Telegram may attract many pro Russian users, but this is because it is a Russian app where Russians talk. Durov also created VK, and left when he refused to suppress opposition or hand data to security agencies. The state now owns VK.

He suspected he was going to be arrested if he traveled across Europe. He is a Russian who owns a social media app that Russians post pro Russian content on. Free speech is allowed on Telegram, and that is now being eroded in the West. This was inevitable.

@Stephie So it's just like every other large social media company (ex. Twitter, Facebook) then. People shouldn't place their trust in any of them.

@ElwoodBlues Signal is already hacked by Russians. Use pigeons 😂

@Khenpal1 Source of this claim? I looked for confirmation and mostly found the opposite.

@ElwoodBlues Its hard with source in English, its Ukrainian army claim , that they say Russians did hacked Signal.

@ElwoodBlues telegram is used to coordinate targeting Ukrainian troops by Russians , Iran , was used to target Navalny etc.. Simply Telegram works with Putin's regime.

@Stephie The fastest way to get noticed by security agencies is to repeatedly use certain related words you keep using. LMAO There are keywords they scan for. It is not bunch of people looking through our data, it is programs. And it will signal content as potentially malicious. And they gets investigated.

You have nothing to worry about unless you've actually got yourself involved in something. Or are living under some sort of radical regime.

@Miram I am very well aware of those key words that agencies use to tag those that use them. The one I use is most probably among the list but it is by far not the one that will sound the red alert and battle stations.

@Khenpal1 Actions speak louder than words. Many Signal users in Russia report attempts by their government to block the Signal protocol. If, as you say, Russia has cracked the protocol, why block it?

Why not (from Putin's perspective) just let your enemies continue to use it while you continue to crack and read their communications?? Russia is ACTING like Signal is a an actual threat to them.

2018: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/7745

2024: https://apnews.com/article/russia-crackdown-signal-messenger-blocked-2adc9c67fc749727c41375f5b5ffb2a3

@Stephie I share your snooping concerns.

@Miram You're absolutely correct, and I wish more people realised this, but instead they seem to think the NSA or CIA are actually interested in their porn-watching habits. It would be funny if it weren't so sad.
Why would any department of any government anywhere waste their limited time, money, resources and manpower on people who, in the grand scheme of things, just do not matter?
Maybe they're just paranoid, or perhaps they just want to feel special and loved by someone, even if it's just a government spook 😂

@Stephie I don't suppose you have a list of those words by any chance, do you? I'm asking for a friend. Yeah, that's it, a friend 😉

@Bel6EQUJ5 I don't have that list but tell your friend that practically every word with some Arabic or Russian sound is likely to be on the list. S**t, I just named 2 of them 😱

@Stephie Allahu Akhbar! Vodka. Da. Nyet. Inshallah!
What about Chinese and Korean?

@Bel6EQUJ5 Nooooo! you set my computer in self-destruction mode 😄