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Tell HN: Telegram is most likely doing client side scanning; I quit Telegram

63 pointsby stereoradonc6 months ago
For years I have ignored warnings around Telegram being "unencrypted". Though, for unknown reasons, they first banned my account and then recently, "restricted" my account. Yesterday, I had a private chat with someone and based on specific keywords, Telegram suddenly "restricted" my account. While not explicitly "censorship" (or even remotely illegal), Telegram is likely doing scanning in private chats. This was a red line and I quit the platform.

10 comments

Tiberium6 months ago
Private chats aren&#x27;t E2E. But anyhow, why do you think you were restricted based on specific keywords? And how does that restriction look like? Can you please check your access with @SpamBot ? Because in Telegram, if you PM someone, they have a big red button that&#x27;ll block you and report you for spam - and Telegram often temporarily restricts accounts for reported unsolicited PMs.<p>Oh, and the title is misleading, there&#x27;s no such thing done on the client side for sure.
nixosbestos6 months ago
&gt; For years I have ignored warnings around Telegram being &quot;unencrypted&quot;<p>Guess what the people reading this thread, using Telegram, are going to do.
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jkmartindale6 months ago
I&#x27;m a bit fuzzy on the details, but late July&#x2F;early August 2023 there were rumors in certain circles regarding a potential Telegram session takeover exploit or some other scary weirdness. It ended up being a keyword (or probably URL) that was on Telegram&#x27;s blocklist. Sending it to someone in a private chat resulted in account restrictions or session terminations, iirc.<p>Seems like instead of having a functioning moderation team, Telegram uses extremely lazy automation and hopes nobody will care.
ipaddr6 months ago
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.cryptographyengineering.com&#x2F;2024&#x2F;08&#x2F;25&#x2F;telegram-is-not-really-an-encrypted-messaging-app&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.cryptographyengineering.com&#x2F;2024&#x2F;08&#x2F;25&#x2F;telegram...</a>
ac130kz6 months ago
I have to flag the post:<p>1) It is encrypted, if you initiate an encrypted chat, which is not the default.<p>2) The clients are open source, you can even write your own TUI around the API.
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quyleanh6 months ago
Talking to &quot;unencrypted&quot;, may I ask, by default, for normal chat, all the text, image, video, sticker is uploaded to Telegram server without encryption? Or they are encrypted&#x2F;hashed&#x2F;salted but the decryption key is on Telegram side?
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myself2486 months ago
Can you share some words that might trigger it, without doxing yourself? I have a Telegram account IDGAF about and it&#x27;d be entertaining to see if it gets zorched.
mingus886 months ago
What were the keywords?
int_19h6 months ago
Telegram is encrypted if you tell it to be. Did you?
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486sx336 months ago
Well… yeah<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cnn.com&#x2F;2024&#x2F;09&#x2F;23&#x2F;tech&#x2F;telegram-ceo-durov-arrest-user-data-changes&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cnn.com&#x2F;2024&#x2F;09&#x2F;23&#x2F;tech&#x2F;telegram-ceo-durov-arres...</a>