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Telegram CEO Claims Apple Has 'Prevented' App Updates Globally Since April
New submitter devoid42 writes:Multiple news outlets -- ArsTechnica and The Verge -- report that Apple is restricting updates to Telegram app across the globe. The outage comes at a time when the Russian government has instructed Apple to ban the secure message app. No response from Apple as to the reason, though preventing security updates globally in response to one countrie's request seems quite a miss judgement, one can argue.
To counter pretty inane comments here on ./ I have to say this: it's impossible to understand who is involved and what's going on in this situation. One thing is clear: it's ugly.
The Kremlin wants to get access to Telegram's chats stored in the cloud by getting the encryption keys, and Durov claims such keys are impossible to share.
The issue is that the other "private" messengers in Russia work just fine and no one cares (WhatsApp, FB messenger, Viber, Signal, etc.), so you're left wondering whether they are indeed "secure" and your chats in them are not being spied on. Meanwhile it's well known that FSB can access your Skype history if you reside in Russia.
There's a conspiracy theory that it's all a clever ruse to get more people on Telegram (after all, this whole situation has made Telegram a lot more popular in the world than it was before) while those in power can actually read your correspondence in it (aside from p2p encrypted chats which people don't really use).
Durov can say and claim whatever he wants but your chats' history and files you send in Telegram are stored in plain text on Durov's servers. That alone should alert people but most don't care as long as it's advertised as "private" and "secure". It's certainly not private and it's not exactly clear whether it's indeed secure.
If you really care about privacy, use Signal or Wire.