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Telegram Adds 'Delete Everywhere' Nuclear Option -- Killing Chat History (techcrunch.com)

Posted by msmash on from the for-what-it-is-worth dept.

Instant messaging service Telegram has added a feature that lets a user delete messages in one-to-one and/or group private chats, after the fact, and not only from their own inbox. From a report: The new 'nuclear option' delete feature allows a user to selectively delete their own messages and/or messages sent by any/all others in the chat. They don't even have to have composed the original message or begun the thread to do so. They can just decide it's time. Let that sink in. All it now takes is a few taps to wipe all trace of a historical communication -- from both your own inbox and the inbox(es) of whoever else you were chatting with (assuming they're running the latest version of Telegram's app).

6 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. First rule of robotics by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 5, Informative

    Never assume any communications system is not already being backed up at all the link points, and by multiple intelligence gathering agencies in multiple venues.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  2. 35 years late by Ignatius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia."

    1. Re:35 years late by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 2

      My first thought was "how could I frame a post so that any response looks stupid and/or evil if my post were removed from the thread?"

      So, how long before someone realizes this can now be done trivially?

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  3. Nonsense by gweihir · · Score: 2

    Anybody with a camera is not impressed. This is not "nuclear", except in the sense that it is tiny and meaningless.

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    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:Nonsense by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This is probably quite effective. Consider that the worst most people have to worry about is normal law enforcement, who don't have supercomputers and zero day exploits available, so the best they can do is try to unlock your phone and check its contents.

      Securely deleting data, especially if it is by deleting an encryption key for that data, is generally very effective against law enforcement and we have seen over and over again that it works.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  4. The faux-profundity style by Sveljkovic · · Score: 2

    How about an indefinite moratorium on cloying expressions like ‘let that sink in’. In living memory ‘a historical communication’ could be obliterated simply by being set alight. Might even still be true, in a few instances.