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

> For years I have ignored warnings around Telegram being "unencrypted"

Guess what the people reading this thread, using Telegram, are going to do.

Diti · a year ago

Telegram user here. I’ll keep using the app with no end-to-end encryption, like usual. It’s widely known by now (I think) that Telegram doesn’t have default E2E encryption. Personally, I stay on it because of the network effect (staying on the same network as my friends).

hu3 · a year ago

Plus the user experience is, imo, the best in class.

The client is open source in C++ which explains why it runs laps around Electron apps: https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop

It's so quick and intuitive.

Plus writing interactive bots for it is trivial.

Talking to "unencrypted", 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/hashed/salted but the decryption key is on Telegram side?

Tiberium · a year ago

It's the latter, there is encryption for everything but of course Telegram has the keys. But I don't think there's information if Telegram stores data encrypted or not.

quyleanh · a year ago

So we have to trust Telegram just like we trust Apple with iMessage right? Since Apple also has ability to extract information from iCloud backup [1].

Anyway, I don't know why HN crowds tend to aggressive with Telegram. Personally I like it and use it like a social platform.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/world/exclusive-apple-droppe...

tmottabr · a year ago

no it is not..

There is E2E encryption for private ono on one conversations, but it is off by default and the option to enable it is buried behind a few screens ans several clicks..

And it is completely unavailable for group chats..

If you want more details, Matthew Green, the famous cryptographer from Johns Hopkins University have reviewed it recently

https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2024/08/25/telegram...

Private chats aren'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'll block you and report you for spam - and Telegram often temporarily restricts accounts for reported unsolicited PMs.

Oh, and the title is misleading, there's no such thing done on the client side for sure.

nixosbestos · a year ago

jkmartindale · a year ago

I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but late July/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's blocklist. Sending it to someone in a private chat resulted in account restrictions or session terminations, iirc.

Seems like instead of having a functioning moderation team, Telegram uses extremely lazy automation and hopes nobody will care.

ipaddr · a year ago

ac130kz · a year ago

I have to flag the post:

1) It is encrypted, if you initiate an encrypted chat, which is not the default.

2) The clients are open source, you can even write your own TUI around the API.

Buxato · a year ago

Encrypted chats are not available in all clients of Telegram, like Linux desktop one.

myself248 · a year ago

Can you share some words that might trigger it, without doxing yourself? I have a Telegram account IDGAF about and it'd be entertaining to see if it gets zorched.

mingus88 · a year ago

What were the keywords?