Should You Stop Using Telegram?

it's not really a private or secure messenger -- what is it?

Many people moved to Telegram for secure messaging in recent years; censorship on Telegram was very light or non-existent, the service worked well from nearly all countries (including China via VPN! - which tells you they have a way to monitor) and many believed it was safe. The network effect drove a lot of accounts and usage — when your friends are somewhere, you want to be there. It now has a billion users, mainly driven by limited censorship and social media features.

In fact, Telegram is a social media network, it is not really a secure messenger. It isn’t that private or secure, but it does offer communications with minimal censorship (out in the open). I’ll show the receipts for how I came to my conclusions using Telegram’s own notices, as well blog posts by recognized experts, and anecdotes by professionals in the field with first hand experience — have a look and decide for yourself.

***If you have noticed emails and phone calls “go missing” lately, you are not alone. Shadowbans, de-platforming and Censorship has reached previously unseen levels. There’s no privacy anywhere. That’s why I got together with some trusted friends and tech experts to create privateLINE. It’s a secure messenger for text and calling inside a private network and easy enough for a computer novice. I’ll be backing up all my content inside this private network and making it available to my readers inside a private enclave free from tracking and censorship with some added bonus materials. You can also contact me directly once inside, search for “chris:imnode01”. Go HERE to get your free account, then we can chat inside privateLINE. Use affiliate code DECODE and you can get access to my private documents (when that becomes available) and future discounts. *** (note we are not shilling our service, we didn’t want to have to build it…keep reading about Telegram, then read up on Signal and the others - the privacy policy and Terms agreements tell you what you need to know)

Telegram’s Terms of Service Has Changed

Telegram themselves just announced they are not at all private any more, as this language was removed from their Terms of Service:

“All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them.”

THIS HAS BEEN REMOVED from the Terms of Service. Meaning they just told us IN THEIR OWN WORDS that nothing on Telegram should be considered to be private!!!

Screen shots of the Telegram Privacy Policy before and after privacy was stripped away from the service. Assume that whatever you say on Telegram will be used against you.

Is Telegram Secure?

As for security, you can have it on Telegram if you work hard to get it. Most people do not know how to set up security and for groups, it’s non-existent. Matthew Green is a widely acknowledged cryptography expert at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Here are some of his thoughts on Telegram (LINK to original blog post):

Many systems use encryption in some way or another. However, when we talk about encryption in the context of modern private messaging services, the word typically has a very specific meaning: it refers to the use of default end-to-end encryption to protect users’ message content. When used in an industry-standard way, this feature ensures that every message will be encrypted using encryption keys that are only known to the communicating parties, and not to the service provider.

From your perspective as a user, an “encrypted messenger” ensures that each time you start a conversation, your messages will only be readable by the folks you intend to speak with. If the operator of a messaging service tries to view the content of your messages, all they’ll see is useless encrypted junk. That same guarantee holds for anyone who might hack into the provider’s servers, and also, for better or for worse, to law enforcement agencies that serve providers with a subpoena.

Telegram clearly fails to meet this stronger definition for a simple reason: it does not end-to-end encrypt conversations by default. If you want to use end-to-end encryption in Telegram, you must manually activate an optional end-to-end encryption feature called “Secret Chats” for every single private conversation you want to have. The feature is explicitly not turned on for the vast majority of conversations, and is only available for one-on-one conversations, and never for group chats with more than two people in them.

You can have end to end encryption on Telegram if you are talking one to one (no groups) and if you manually activate “Secret Chats” for each conversation. Convenience is the enemy of security and privacy and Telegram does not make security and privacy convenient and in the case of groups, even possible.

Here’s the Telegram Detailed Guide to End-to-End Encryption:

A Detailed Guide to End-to-End Encryption on Telegram. It’s brief.

Privacy and security seems to be lacking on Telegram, but keep in mind, once group size exceeds around 20 users, you should assume everything will leak out any way. Anti-censorship can be a very valuable feature for large groups — you mainly care about getting the message out to lots of people and this seems to be the main use case for Telegram.

We’ve also heard reports from reliable people in the cryptocurrency area who have had private keys stolen from Telegram. NEVER SHARE KEYS OR CRITICAL INFO OVER TELEGRAM.

Your Phone Number is Required.

This is a big red flag. Services like to collect phone numbers and email addresses to be able to recontact their users, notify them of changes to terms, but some do this to aid security agencies to track their users. Phone numbers are the unique ID used to track you and store all your information in their files. Why is Telegram used in countries that hate freedom like Russia, China and Vietnam? Users are being tracked, there is no other answer.

No phone number is required at privateLINE, unlike Telegram or Signal.

What About the Founder and CEO of Telegram and the People Around Him?

Pavel Durov is the founder and CEO of Telegram. He seems to be a very decent human being and I believe he is a person with a good heart who has done a lot of admirable things. It’s a lot of hard work — dangerous work sometimes — to run a service that provides a secure messenger used in many countries. Even though he started with a bankroll from a prior company exit, it’s not easy to build and scale a popular service like Telegram. He’s done a good job on many levels.

Where people in this position run into trouble are when spies are attracted to this kind of business and infiltrate the operation and surround the CEO. Criminals have something to hide and the spies love data hub services like Telegram — many unsavory people will come. Good people can be surrounded by spies. Also, the spies collect damaging information used for blackmail. Don’t be surprised if Mr. Durov ran into this problem — it’s not his fault that spies exist.

Recently, it was revealed that Mr. Durov’s girlfriend, Juli Vavilova, comes from a notorious spy family similar to the one on the hit TV show “The Americans” LINK:

Is Juli Vavilova a Spy? Her Parents Definitely Were! Juli Vavilova, the enigmatic figure recently thrust into the spotlight due to her connection with Telegram founder Pavel Durov, is at the center of swirling speculation. Described as a young influencer, gamer, and crypto coach living in Dubai, her close ties with Durov have sparked conspiracy theories—some even alleging that she could be a Mossad agent who played a role in Durov’s arrest. While these claims remain unverified, one fact is certain: Juli Vavilova’s parents were bona fide Russian spies. Elena Vavilova and Andrey Bezrukov, her parents, lived under deep cover in the United States for nearly two decades, operating on behalf of the Soviet KGB and later for Russian intelligence (SVR). Disguised as a Canadian couple, Tracy Foley and Donald Heathfield, they were part of a sophisticated spy network that the FBI exposed in 2010 during the famous "Ghost Stories" operation. Following their dramatic arrest, Juli’s parents were exchanged in a high-profile prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia. Upon their return, they were celebrated as heroes in Russia, receiving state honors. Elena Vavilova has since transitioned into a new career as a writer, publishing a book that provides a rare insider’s look into the life of undercover agents. Juli's connection to this shadowy world adds to the intrigue surrounding her, making her one of the most talked-about figures in the media right now. Whether she's merely in the wrong place at the wrong time or has her own secrets, the story of Juli Vavilova continues to captivate global attention. Could she be following in her parents’ footsteps, or is she just another name caught in a whirlwind of geopolitics? Stay tuned—this is a story that's far from over.

Juli Vavinova is a captivating person with an interesting family background. (from social media)

Strange Events Around Pavel Durov’s Arrest

Officially, France arrested Durov’s because of criminal activity on the platform. Bail was set to 5m EUR and Durov was forbidden to leave France. Almost immediately, Telegram made changes to their platform, Verve reported.

In a post on Telegram Friday, founder and CEO Pavel Durov set out a new approach for the app and announced it’s disabled some “outdated” features. The first changes to the app following his arrest in France last month affect its built-in blog posts and a “People Nearby” location-based feature.

The changes come as Durov attempts to reverse Telegram’s reputation as a hotspot for criminal activity that came as a result of lax moderation policies. In late August, French authorities arrested and charged Durov with enabling illegal transactions and complicity in the distribution of child sexual abuse material.

Then there were rumors of other factors in Durov’s arrest from Andrew Torba’s Twitter account (Gab CEO):

His arrest follows just weeks after one million hacked files from the Israeli government were circulating on Telegram. The group behind the released documents, DDoSecrets, was banned on Telegram shortly after their release. These documents revealed that the Israeli government sought legal advice on how to avoid registering under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires the disclosure of foreign-backed lobbying campaigns. The documents show that Israeli officials proposed creating a new American nonprofit to continue their activities in the US while avoiding scrutiny under the law. Durov is notorious for his defense of user privacy and is known to deny government requests for access to user data. One has to wonder if these two events are connected."

Whatever the case, the arrest was a blow to free speech.

A dangerous legal precedent is happening with Telegram because the ultimate censorship is done by punishing people who run the service or make the product, not the end users who actually caused the problems. What if car manufacturers were held liable for the actions of their customers? Gun manufacturers? Medicine? there is no end to this and everything will be destroyed in the quest for “safety and security”.

A lot of pressure can be applied to a platform like Telegram. Without solid encryption, all sorts of nation states interested in grabbing valuable data to feed their spying machine or even for AI training. With all the data from 1 billion users, it’s a prize to steal.