The war in Ukraine is not the official version of events, so Russians have turned to Telegram for news and conversations. Some Telegram users might want to be careful.
Telegram has a reputation for being a secure messaging app, but not all communications on the platform have the highest level of security. Telegram's messages are not end-to-end secured by default. End-to-end encryption prevents the platform from knowing what users are saying. Telegram uses a different type of encryption that does not protect the privacy of conversations. Telegram has a privacy blindspot.
Telegram users can enable end-to-end encryption for some messages by making them secret, but that is not the default, and it is limited to one-on-one chats and not private group messages. Eva Galperin, the director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that group messages are where a lot of organizing against the war in Russia is taking place.
Telegram and Signal are used by Ukrainians. People under threat of bombing may not be as concerned about cybersecurity as people in Russia who are organizing or speaking out against the government.
Galperin is concerned that some of the Russian Telegram users may be at risk of having their private information exposed. The Russian government might want Telegram to hand over user information. Russia took Telegram to court after Telegram stood up to Russia. The case was dismissed by Russia in 2020. Telegram users conversations are not protected from the platform itself.
All of this data is available to Telegram as a company, and so you are essentially trusting Telegram not to give it to someone else.
Galperin believes that the greater threat has to do with Telegram's security.
Galperin said that he would have less confidence in Telegram's ability to protect data from hacking.
In this scenario, a hacker may be able to access Telegram's records in order to give the data to other parties. Even worse is what Galperin thinks is the single most likely source of threat, that someone within Telegram might compromise that security, accessing and transferring user data, with the company and the public unaware.
Telegram is a good source of counter-propaganda for Russians. It's possible that Russia will cut off access to Telegram entirely.
Ian Garner, a Russian historian who has been documenting social media trends in the Ukraine war, said over email that he wondered if the government would speed up its attempts to block Telegram.
This would be technically possible according to Galperin. Not having an information pipeline is concerning in and of itself.
People need to be aware of the risks of using Telegram so that they can make an informed decision.
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