I get into details about what I like and dont like about the app below.
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What Is Telegram & Who Owns It?
The brothers previously founded VK, one of the biggest social media platforms in Russia today.
Telegram is currently based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
How Does Telegram Protect Your Privacy?
However, the message is decrypted by the messaging services servers before being sent to the recipient.
This means that not even Telegram can read your Secret Chats.
IMPORTANT:You have to manually start a Secret Chat in the Telegram app to benefit from E2EE.
The community can contribute to finding and patching security issues, often faster than a closed team of developers.
One notable flaw with Telegram is that it doesnt publish its server-side code.
This feature works in both one-on-one and group chats.
Using this feature means that you dont leave permanent records of any sensitive media that you might send.
Disappearing Media is only available in one-on-one chats.
The app will auto-lock itself again after a user-defined period of time from 1 minute to 5 hours.
What Data Does Telegram Collect?
It also collects data thats necessary for the app to function.
Notably, this necessary data includes your phone number.
Additionally, Telegram can see basic account data, such as your profile name and picture.
Some of Telegrams optional features require more data.
It uses this information to notify you if they sign up for Telegram.
Telegram has a fairly clean record as well.
They didnt gain access to any user accounts or chats.
Additionally, not all chats have the Secret Chats function.
For example, group chats dont support Secret Chats.
There arepros and cons to both apps.
Each offers strong security features, like end-to-end encryption (E2EE), disappearing messages, and 2-step verification.
What I like about WhatsApp is that it has E2EE on by default for all communications in the app.
Can Telegram be hacked?
No app is 100% safe from hackers.
However,Telegram has a pretty decent recordthus far.
Does Telegram sell user data?
Necessary data that Telegram collects includes your phone number, IP address, and potentially your email address.
Telegram can see your basic account data as well, such as your profile information.
You may optionally share your contacts list or location if you use certain features.
What country is Telegram from?
Telegram is a private company owned byRussian entrepreneur Pavel Durov.
There are no known connections between Telegram and the Russian government.
In fact, Pavel has been outspoken in his criticism of the government of his home country.
