[Yaina]

The Telegram Apps are all great and have so many awesome features that are crucially also extremely well implemented. Everything seems so well thought through!

It's just incredibly scary not to know anything about who these developers are, where they are located and most importantly how this is all financed!

I understand Pavel Durov is a very wealthy man, but developing and hosting a popular global messenger service can't be cheap.

[ticviking]

TBH my threat model views Russian and Middle Eastern oligarchs and governments as less of an immediate threat to my freedoms than my own government or major US tech firms.

Long run it's a problem, but until I have a app at the same risk/feature sweet spot I don't mind the downsides of telegram.

(Edited cause I am utterly unable to spell)

[nucleardog]

This was part of how I settled on Telegram.

Basically any western country can be secretly ordered to turn over all my information on the flimsiest of reasons, if it’s not already just intercepted through Five Eyes style arrangements.

The chances of Russia volunteering to share my chat history with anyone that could actually impact my day to day life is pretty much nil, and I’m certainly not interesting to anyone in their sphere.

[stereoradonc]

Bingo!

Likewise. I'd like FSB to know what I did in the last one hour. I wonder if they really find it interesting to pursue me.

[deadalus]

This is also the reason I prefer using VPN based in countries that are NOT based in USA/EU and that are not friendly to USA/EU -> Russia, China, Myanmar, Iran etc.

[novok]

Secret 1:1 & group chat by default like signal, well labeled non-secret large chat rooms, open source clients and using standardized encryption and they'd do pretty well amongst the privacy crowd too.

[olah_1]

sounds like you’re describing Matrix. It’s a shame that the only user friendly mobile client is called “fluffy chat” and seems to be targeted at furries or children.

[finolex1]

Is there anything secretive about their developers? I see a lot on LinkedIn for what it's worth.