Signal CEO Says Telegram Is Not As Safe As People Think, Here's The Proof!

Telegram often gives itself as the safest application. (photo: doc. Telegram)

JAKARTA - Telegram often gives itself as the safest application, compared to others such as WhatsApp and Signal. However, it is the opposite of what Signal CEO Moxie Marlinspike said.

Through his Twitter account, Marlinspike with the @Moxie account stated that Telegram has shortcomings regarding data privacy.

“It's amazing to me that after all this time, almost all the media coverage about Telegram still refers to it as an encrypted message. Telegram has lots of great features, but when it comes to privacy and data collection, there's no worse choice," tweeted @Moxie.

Embed: https://twitter.com/moxie/status/1474067549574688768?t=U82QS6IvoYyQ_E4ZG91vzw&s=19

Marlinspike then explained that the platform with the paper airplane logo stores the contacts of users, groups, media and every message they have ever sent or received in plaintext on the company's servers.

"The app on your phone is just a display to their servers, where the data actually resides. Almost everything you see in the app, Telegram sees too," tweeted @Moxie.

Marlinspike's plaintext means that contacts, groups, media, and any messages belonging to users are not encrypted using an encryption system. In fact, Telegram can see all the user's data.

Not wanting to just spread false claims, Marlinspike shows how to prove them. He asked Telegram users to delete the app on their phones.

Then, they can re-download and login using the registered mobile number. Marlinspike explained, when he returned to Telegram, the entire conversation history, until the media immediately appeared in the application.

“Here's a simple test: delete Telegram, install it on a new phone, and register with your number. You will immediately see all your conversation history, all your contacts, all your shared media, all your groups. How? Everything is on their server, in plain text," explained @Moxie.

That means as proof, that Telegram's data privacy is problematic. This is because the company stores all data on their servers in plaintext, as quoted from The News, Tuesday, December 28.

Some people, according to Marlinspike may not think it's a big problem for Telegram to have access to all their data, messages, pictures, contacts, groups, because they still put their trust in Telegram.

However, the essence of Marlinspike's intent is that users should not trust anyone other than the person they are communicating with.

"Privacy technology isn't really about trusting other people with your data. It's about not having to do it. Messages you send should only be visible to you and the recipient. Group details are only visible to other members. Searching your contacts shouldn't reveal them to anyone else. ," said @Moxie.

The Marlinspike thread was also supported by WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart through a retweet on his Twitter.

For information, Telegram actually has an end-to-end encryption feature, but this feature can only be used on Secret Chats, meaning only between users, not group chats. No doubt, Marlinspike said it was too much to think of Telegram as a safe application.

To use Telegram's end-to-end encryption, users must start a secret chat by tapping on the person's name, clicking the “More” button or menu, and “Start Secret Chat.”