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Telegram's getting ads

gizmodo.com

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Re: Telegram's getting ads

#91

Post by bjoli »

ffpip wrote: post #90
bjoli wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their protocol is not encrypted by default, which is an odd choice. And on any smartphone made in the last 10 years encryption should not be a bottleneck in any other way than maybe compression size, which is pretty irrelevant since most of the larger things you are sending will be heavily compressed before encryption (video and images come to mind).

> And on any smartphone made in the last 10 years encryption should not be a bottleneck in any other way.. Telegram is the fastest messenger on my 3 year old phone and is significantly faster than the other 6 messengers on it (some of them are e2ee and some only TLS encrypted.

Which probably has nothing to do with encryption. The TLS messengers are using AES as well (and unless you are using secret chats for all your communication Telegram is in this camp as well).

What you are experiencing is probably "just" UI.

Re: Telegram's getting ads

#92

Post by SpaceRaccoon »

bjoli wrote: post #83
ffpip wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To this end I havent seen a good explanation from Telegram as to why they have taken this route given .. They say it is for speed. Looking at how fast Telegram is, I can say it worked for them. It is the most reliable app that works on slow internet for me. https://core.telegram.org/techfaq#q-why-did-you-go-for-a-cus...

Their protocol is not encrypted by default, which is an odd choice. And on any smartphone made in the last 10 years encryption should not be a bottleneck in any other way than maybe compression size, which is pretty irrelevant since most of the larger things you are sending will be heavily compressed before encryption (video and images come to mind).

> Their protocol is not encrypted by default, which is an odd choice.

That's because end-to-end encrypted chats are only available on a single device, since the e2e keys are not shared between devices. Most users switch between devices and like to have everything stored in the cloud, so having that as the default is the obvious convenience.

Anybody who is concerned about e2e can easily start a secret chat for that purposes, at the expense of cloud functionality.

Re: Telegram's getting ads

#93

Post by SpaceRaccoon »

amelius wrote: post #44
tomcam wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. I like musical instruments. I don’t mind ads for guitar companies. I like embedded systems. I love seeing ads for new esp32 variants or low cost e-ink screens. Also I never object to women’s swimsuit ads. Just sayin’.

Still, ads will distract you in moments that you don't want to be distracted. If you like guitars, you can visit a good, large online guitar store, say once a week, and you will always be up to date. Same for swimsuits.

The service must be sustained somehow. Either through ads or fees.

I don't understand why people act like they can avoid ads, and enjoy a free service.

Hopefully there is a paid option that hides ads. Would you pay for it?

Re: Telegram's getting ads

#94

Post by higerordermap »

utf_8x wrote: post #12

I'd recommend Signal[0] as an alternative. It's fully Open-Source (including the backend) and their crypto is public and independently verified[1][2][3]... [0] https://signal.org/en/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software)#Encryption_p... [2] https://threatpost.com/signal-audit-reveals-protocol-cryptog... [3] https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/1013.pdf [PDF]

Ah yes the average user care about privacy and encryption. UX is for us nerds.

Re: Telegram's getting ads

#95

Post by anoncake »

utf_8x wrote: post #12

I'd recommend Signal[0] as an alternative. It's fully Open-Source (including the backend) and their crypto is public and independently verified[1][2][3]... [0] https://signal.org/en/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software)#Encryption_p... [2] https://threatpost.com/signal-audit-reveals-protocol-cryptog... [3] https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/1013.pdf [PDF]

No. The maintainer of software prohibits alternative clients. It's open source in name only. And when he decides to add ads to Signal, you can't avoid them.

https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issueco...

Re: Telegram's getting ads

#96

Post by anoncake »

bilal4hmed wrote: post #4
fsflover wrote: post #2

This is why decentralization is the future. Any sufficiently popular walled garden will have such problem (I'm looking at you Signal). Consider using Matrix instead.

I like Matrix, but when it comes to ease of use and onboarding Signal is easier for the general audience.

If ease of use and onboarding is the criterium, WhatsApp wins. Promoting any walled garden is short-sighted.

Re: Telegram's getting ads

#97

Post by ffpip »

bjoli wrote: post #91
ffpip wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And on any smartphone made in the last 10 years encryption should not be a bottleneck in any other way.. Telegram is the fastest messenger on my 3 year old phone and is significantly faster than the other 6 messengers on it (some of them are e2ee and some only TLS encrypted.

Which probably has nothing to do with encryption. The TLS messengers are using AES as well (and unless you are using secret chats for all your communication Telegram is in this camp as well). What you are experiencing is probably "just" UI.

Yes, but signal has another layer of encryption. Even if the server is compromised or TLS is broken, singal chats shouldn't leak.
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