HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

I really would not be surprised if will surface that Telegram has a backdoor for Russian special services. After Anton Rosenberg's posts [1] and Durov's (very unconvincing) responses, it is clear that Durov lies a lot how Telegram operates, and it is quite likely that all their 'blocking' in Russia is just a show to boost credibility.

It also should be noted, that while Telegram markets itself as the most safe and protected messenger, it's regular chats are, in fact, non-encrypted at all and are way less secure than WhatsApps. It's actually baffling, he bashes WhatsApp with such audacity [2], telling in one sentence, that 'if your phone dies, you can't access your messages on another device', and then continues preaching how cool it is to use encryption. BUT IF ONE USES END-TO-END ENCRYPTION, ONE CAN'T ACCESS MESSAGES ON ANOTHER DEVICE, BY DEFINITION!!!!!

It never ceases to amaze me that people bought into this. A comfortable to use app and a really good promise of security turns out to be better than real proper security. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[1]: https://medium.com/@anton.rozenberg/friendship-betrayal-clai...

[2]: https://youtu.be/kVZN9QbtFgs?t=106

⬐ boring_twenties

> BUT IF ONE USES END-TO-END ENCRYPTION, ONE CAN'T ACCESS MESSAGES ON ANOTHER DEVICE, BY DEFINITION!!!!!

You can encrypt each message separately for each device, that's still end-to-end encryption.

⬐ Andrew_nenakhov

Yeah, and load it on a completely new device by providing only login and password, too?? (Like Telegram does)

⬐ boring_twenties

Ah, no. I missed the part about it being a completely new device. This obviously only works for devices that were already authenticated when the message was first sent.

⬐ Andrew_nenakhov

That's the point - Durov bashes WhatsApp for 'inconvenience' and supposed lack of privacy, but in reality this inconvenience is a result of real presence of privacy. In contrast, Telegram's convenience is a result of a real lack of privacy, because to work this way it has to have a way to decrypt user messages.

Of course, they tell tales on how deeply it is all encrypted on T's servers, and that only select few trusted engineers have keys, but those are just tall tales.