Don't use messengers that ask for your phone number and aren't end-to-end encrypted.<p>Use services that store as little data as possible.<p>If data is stored, it can be given away and I would assume that it <i>will</i> be given away.<p>Telegram disguises itself as encrypted chat app, when it is actually just a regular centralized plaintext messenger that has an encryption feature that nobody uses.
How many times does it have to be said - Companies are not immune to court orders, CEOs wont do 10 years hard time so that your phone number or ip address or even unencrypted content isnt handed over in a police investigation in return for $5.99 a month.
All of a sudden, it seems really stupid that telegram stores all their data unencrypted and waiting for a court order. I expect them to fight this, because they have a very good track record there, but the moment they capitulate the floodgates will open.
I am not defending Telegram, but as a social media application (and a private chat option), Telegram is only complying with existing laws. Copyright materials are a taboo on ANY electronic medium (including the open web). We just had a major issue around the Z-Library. Each time anything of this sort happens, I see the Signal users coming out from no-where. These news aren't a big deal, and numerous public channels have faced the axe. Most of them have changed tactics by going "private" by rapidly changing their invite links or using bot services to "verify users" before they join.
Public groups earlier sharing copyright materials are "banned". There are numerous bots that connect to torrents and upload content to Telegram. Z Library still serves content; Nexus bots have just rolled out a feature to connect your bot (through API token). Signal serves a specific niche of users, and I think polarising arguments (or moralistic stands) are only to play to the gallery.
Telegram (and other messaging apps for that matter) should allow accounts to be created without a phone number, and ideally stop saving the IP addresses of users.
Telegram is convenient, the bot feature's great. But some things about it suck and they're prone to government interference privacy-wise.<p>One of the more recent E2EE private messaging apps with metadata shredding and <i>no registration requirement</i> for is <a href="https://xx.network/messenger" rel="nofollow">https://xx.network/messenger</a><p>It's available for Android & iOS.<p>F-Droid users can build Android version from the source (<a href="https://git.xx.network/elixxir/" rel="nofollow">https://git.xx.network/elixxir/</a>) and load it themselves.<p>There's no registration and the app doesn't collect your phone number, device ID and similar crap. Is it mature and polished? No, it has its quirks and rough corners. But it won't let you down on security and encryption.
Does Telegram have a branch in India? What is the teritorial limit of the Indian court decision? Internet is very tricky in this regard, but an Indian court has no jurisdiction over entities that are in other countries (this is also a very complicated matter).
Imagine if our water service was like the Internet:
We'd distribute potable water by shooting it way up into the sky and just having a constant municipal drizzle/rain/downpour everywhere. Every house would have some buckets to collect enough potable water to use.<p>Then the sewer system would be a bucket brigade: You fill a bucket at home and bring it over to your neighbor, and they pass it on in a long stinky chain of wastewater until it gets to the treatment plant or the ocean.<p>There would be no such thing as faucets, pipes, or protected water sources. It would just be a cycle of spraying it all into the air and bucket-brigading back to the source.<p>And that's today's Internet.