this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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Privacy

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[–] [email protected] 72 points 2 months ago (42 children)

Not that the action against Telegram is right, but there's a big difference between what Signal and Telegram is doing.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago (17 children)

Would you have more info on the differences? I was wondering the same thing, but I don't know enough about Telegram to compare

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I'm no authority on it but from what I've read it seems to have more to do with the social features of telegram where lots of content is being shared, both legal and illegal. Signal doesn't have channels that support hundreds of thousands of people at once, nor media hosting to match.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Right, the French authorities are going to present evidence that this dude was aware of specific illegal activity and refuse to comply with a legal warrant involving said actively, making him guilty of obstruction at best, and possibly conspiracy. Signal complies with warrants, they just don't have anyone's keys. Telegram has everyone's keys, and theoretically could turn them over but they refuse. That's a huge difference from a legal perspective.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thank you. I'm going to restate your explanation to be sure I've got it:

  • authorities want platforms to comply with legal requests
  • when Signal gets a subpoena, they open the key locker and show that it's empty. They provide the metadata they can (sign up date and last seen date, full stop) and tell authorities they can't do better.
  • when Telegram gets a subpoena, they open the key locker and show all the keys, then slam it shut in the face of the investigator, telling them to get bent.
  • conclusion: it's easier to never have the keys in the first place than to tease the government with them
[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago

It's easier, but Telegram's authors are from Russia. They psychologically can't accept that "never have the keys" thing. They want to have control and they want to be able to tell "yes" to the investigator, possibly for something in return.

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