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28 comments
  • Telegram is very sketchy and I don’t trust it at all. I’d stick with Signal if you can get your network of people to use it.

    • How is it sketchy?

      • Encryption is self-made and they won’t let anyone audit it. Messages are stored on servers along with all the meta data (your phone number, location data, etc). There is no clear funding model to keep it up and running.

        The whole org is murky/sketchy.

  • just going to copy here something i wrote on reddit a few months almost a year ago^[context]

    i've been using telegram since it was released and ...i don't think i'll be recommending it to new users anymore

    it's not just this announcement, but in general they seem to be really pushing the web3/blockchain/nft angle; along with sign in with telegram, payments through telegram, they feel like they're trying to become the western wechat

    but as for this in particular; obviously all of those usernames are going to be bought by scammers. why would a user trust them if they're being bought and sold all the time? and why would a legitimate business buy them if most users won't trust them? businesses want consistent branding, not ephemeral minutiæ

    nobody is thinking "oh yeah, my bank is the best, it's @bank on telegram" or "i think i'll switch to a new bank, but i don't know which. i guess i'll just message @bank and see what happens" or "i just got a message from @gift! i must have won the lottery!"

    plus, according to these messages, they're taking usernames off users that already used them

    most of my contacts are on telegram now, so i'm going to continue using it. but even aside from the encryption and privacy issues, i wouldn't encourage anyone to switch to telegram

28 comments