Telegram: Insider reports why Messenger is not secure

Telegram has become a popular Whatsapp alternative in the past few months and has become the most popular messenger, especially in the lateral thinking scene. Now an insider reports how easy it is to obtain chats and sensitive data from the supposedly secure messenger. Telegram is simply insecure.

Telegram insecure: this is how questionable the messenger is according to an insider

The Whatsapp alternative is anything but secure, we know that not only since today. But how easy it is to read out chats and get hold of users’ sensitive data has now been revealed by an insider in an interview with ARD political magazine Kontraste and t-online.

Insider and Twitter user @datenliebe1 reveals that intelligence services in particular have an easy time obtaining information from Telegram. He himself owns a database that is fed with content from various Telegram groups – and has done so for years.

According to the insider, content can simply be copied from the chat and stored externally. With public groups, you don’t even have to be a member to simply copy entire chats, he added. It would also be easy to uniquely identify users.

Cautious handling of own data

Telegram users are simply willing to carelessly share their own cell phone numbers in public groups. With the help of this data, quick identification is easily possible, the insider further reports.

Telegram assigns a code number to each cell phone number, which makes it easy to find out in which groups a person is active. Only secret chats are secure, since Telegram uses end-to-end encryption.

The app providers do not actively analyze content shared on Telegram for prohibited content. What is particularly pleasing for protest movements and other groups is a problem for legally questionable and sensitive or even prohibited content.

Telegram itself relied on its users to actively report prohibited content to the operators. This would hardly ever happen in the secret chats, which would mean that this content would remain bent forever.

Addendum with a statement from Telegram

Telegram’s group chats resemble a new generation of social media more than they resemble the groups found in other apps. These groups support an unlimited number of members and can be made public. Public groups are intended to be open and publicly visible. An invite is required to view a private group.

Exporting the contents of a group is no different from copying the information that is already available to the member. The information in that export is no different than simply taking screenshots of the chat.

This so-called ‘insider’ says that having access to a user’s number allows them to see what groups the user is a part of. This is wrong. Telegram lists the groups one has in common with a user in their profile page – but member lists in groups are available to every member in that group. It is not possible to see what groups a user is in unless you are in those groups as well.