Large discussion about this topic here 2 days ago:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31619010" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31619010</a> (210 points/182 comments)
It doesn't actually even matter if they did this. The only thing that matters is that they are physically capable of doing so. Telegram is not e2e encrypted by default, and therefore you shouldn't use it if you're concerned about privacy.<p>Look no further than Signal's supboenas and how they respond to them. With all the information they hold about an account. Which is just the creation date and last connection date. <a href="https://signal.org/bigbrother/eastern-virginia-grand-jury/" rel="nofollow">https://signal.org/bigbrother/eastern-virginia-grand-jury/</a>
People use Telegram because they have a great user experience. Signal, unfortunately, does not - and it's not entirely because they're limited by E2EE.
We either accept countries are sovereign over tech companies or not.<p>If tech companies operate with the territory of a country or provide services to citizens in that country, we can expect that they would have to do so under the laws of that land. Those tech companies can choose to withdraw services if they have a problem with doing so. Twitter / FB et al withdrew from the Chinese market (they were not banned by the PRC, as erroneously understood) precisely because they refused to the subject to data requisition laws of this kind from the PRC
I love Telegram, but it is one of those apps that since it requires a phone number I don't really trust them with ultra-secret data. I think their E2E protocol is fairly sound, but even that isn't ideal. I think you may also get some minimum benefit by using the open-source Android app vs the Google Play Store app. Regardless, if you really desire secrecy (and I believe in privacy but would never advocate for serious crimes like mentioned in the article) then you're probably better off using Signal or XMPP.
An advantage of Telegram over Signal or related apps is that if I am in a situation where I need to delete a message and leave no trace of it having been there then I can do this on Telegram. On Signal, if I delete a message it leaves a 'this message has been deleted' (or something to that effect) notification in the logs of the other party, which can be extremely undesirable behavior.
It's honestly not realistic to expect any free service provider to martyr themselves for your privacy. With that in mind, remember that anywhere you don't control the metal someone is watching you.<p>Always.
>"To this day, we have disclosed 0 bytes of user data to third parties, including governments."<p>A very specific way of saying what most would assume means their users' data is safe. Even if it's not an outright lie, allowing government agents to view user data in their office would not contradict their statement.
Isn't Telegram the company that said Whatsapp can't be e2e encrypted because you can decrypt the messages in Google drive? Seems like a bit of a braindead claim now.