TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client

Re:TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client by Anon1096 on Thursday February 01, 2018 @07:19AM (#16281313)

Well for me, I prefer the way telegram has decided to handle end to end encryption. Let's face it - me and my friends have no use for it, and never will. Our threat model just doesn't really care about actors like the NSA hacking us. If they wanted there's tons of other ways to get our information any (like Google or Facebook accounts). But not being encrypted gives us features not possible otherwise, like url prefetching from the server or (when telegram was released, I guess it can be done now) accessing the chat from as many devices as you want. Yes, there is a tradeoff, but really I don't think most users are worried, nor should they be.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client by andrepd on Thursday February 01, 2018 @07:39AM (#16281417)

Speak for yourself. I care about privacy, and I couldn't give a shit about something so minor as link prefetching. I suspect I'm far from alone.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client by lloeki on Thursday February 01, 2018 @08:27AM (#16281666)

While I do find such features convenient, more importantly to me they draw people to a more secure and privacy conscious messaging platform than the ultra-popular alternatives all the while allowing to upgrade to E2E† on demand. Signal completely fails in that regard, as the number of contacts (actual or potential) on it is precisely zero for me.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client by bollockitis on Thursday February 01, 2018 @08:01AM (#16281541)

Anon1096 clearly stated that he was speaking for himself (or herself) but I agree with him: I want privacy but I don't necessarily need complete secrecy. This isn't a zero sum game: Telegram and Signal can coexist and serve different needs.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client by acct1771 on Thursday February 01, 2018 @08:41AM (#16281746)

"I really don't think most users are worried" is the stark OPPOSITE of speaking for yourself.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client by jamesb93 on Thursday February 01, 2018 @03:47PM (#16285714)

And you're very welcome to use something that fits your threat model.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client by calgoo on Thursday February 01, 2018 @08:45AM (#16281772)

I really don't understand the "hate" for Telegram on HN. I understand that its not (allegedly) as secure as signal for example, but like you said, state actors etc have other ways of getting that info (see xkcd [1]).

I personally use Telegram when talking to my wife because it lets me have a client on every platform i use and the messages follow me. I could do that with some of the other platforms as well, but im already on this platform, the wife is on the platform, and some other family members as well. Now would it be better if it was "more" secure? Of course it could, I mean, we could all be communicating with PGP as well, but most people don't because its a pain to use. So to me personally, Telegram is a useful middle ground between great security and usability.

As a added bonus, using the bot framework that Telegram offers, i have started creating a home automation bot. The framework is really fun and easy to use.

[1] https://xkcd.com/538/

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client by zimpenfish on Thursday February 01, 2018 @08:52AM (#16281810)

> So to me personally, Telegram is a useful middle ground between great security and usability.

Same. I tried Signal a couple of years ago but the iOS app was prone to crashing, corrupting messages, and just plain losing words. Not really what you want.

> The framework is really fun and easy to use.

Yeah, I've done a couple of bots for it and it's pretty handy.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:TDLib – Build Your Own Telegram Client by Aloha on Thursday February 01, 2018 @04:13PM (#16285952)

Telegram for me is the right trade off between security and convenience.

[ Parent | on HN ]