this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025
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Asklemmy

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Greetings!

A friend of mine wants to be more secure and private in light of recent events in the USA.

They originally told me they were going to use telegram, in which I explained how Telegram is considered compromised, and Signal is far more secure to use.

But they want more detailed explanations then what I provided verbally. Please help me explain things better to them! โœจ

I am going to forward this thread to them, so they can see all your responses! And if you can, please cite!

Thank you! โœจ

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[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Telegrsm is not secure anymore. USA have all the keys of the encriptions of telegrsm.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)
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[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I won't be popular in this thread, but I don't fight this battle anymore. Telegram beats Signal in virtually every aspect of user experience. If a person is unlikely to be convinced that e2ee is worth taking all the UX hits, I don't try anymore.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I keep seeing this claim, but I may be too much of a computer nerd to notice when using them both. What does Telegram do better and how?

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I may be too much of a computer nerd to notice when using them both

That's probably true of just about everyone on Lemmy.

What does Telegram do better and how?

User experience, like I said. How many less technically inclined people do you know who will understand why they have no message history in Signal after moving devices? Yes, they could have kept it if they'd had backups enabled and moved the archive over and restored from it, but it's too late now, their entire contact list has been notified that their safety number's changed (another aspect we get to attempt to explain). It's a bummer.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Message history is a valid point. Signal just announced they're fixing it.

Safety number change notifications are probably necessary to maintain Signal's high level of security. The above device linking improvements should make them less frequent, though I'll concede some might consider that a worse UX than an insecure chat with no such notifications.

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[โ€“] [email protected] -2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Signal needs a phone number.

I don't want to give them one. Also I don't have one.

Oh my, that seems to eliminate Signal as an option.

Next?

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Apparently Signal still requires it, though you no longer must reveal it to others.

Wired last year: Signal Finally Rolls Out Usernames, So You Can Keep Your Phone Number Private

Those features, which WIRED has tested, are designed to allow users to conceal their phone numbers as they communicate on the app and instead share a username as a less-sensitive method of connecting with one another.

Whittaker says that, for better or worse, a phone number remains a necessary requisite as the identifier Signal privately collects from its users.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Apparently I still don't have one. Haven't had a phone number for about a decade. No SMS spam, no "survey" calls; nothing.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Same with telegram though

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