My Chats on Telegram Desktop
When compared to instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram Desktop is often lauded for its presumed superior security features. However, a look at Telegram’s privacy policy reveals that the app’s encryption is not necessarily as secure as some users may believe. The platform does offer end-to-end encryption for chats between two people, but you must manually set these up. This contrasts with competitors such as Signal, which automatically apply E2EE to all chats.
telegram desktop download is a cloud service, meaning that messages and media in group chats, channels, and one-to-one chats are stored on the company’s servers (though they are only viewable on the devices you own). Only those with the decryption keys can access this data, but this means your chat history could be accessed by a third party. Telegram’s cloud setup also makes it possible to sync messages across all of your devices. However, you can minimize this risk by creating chats that are labelled as Secret, which only work on the device they’re created on, and do not synchronize to the cloud.
In addition to your chat history, Telegram saves your username changes, device details, and other information related to your account, which hackers can use to hijack your account. You can protect yourself against this by setting up two-step verification on the app’s settings page, which will require a code to login from new devices. You can also use a VPN to prevent your metadata from being associated with your real-world IP address, which could allow others to track your online activity and identify you.
How Do I Secure My Chats on Telegram Desktop?
Even with these protections in place, it’s important to remember that any links sent within a message can be used maliciously. It’s best to avoid clicking on such links, especially those from strangers. Instead, search for similar topics on the app or go to a website that you trust.
Another way to help secure your chats is to use self-destructing media, which deletes from the conversation after a period of time. This can be useful for sending sensitive photos or videos to a specific person that you don’t want to get into the hands of a third party.
Finally, if you have multiple chats open on different devices, you should close any sessions that you’re no longer using. This prevents a hacker from accessing your private conversations by logging in to more than one device simultaneously.
To further bolster your security, you can lock the app with a passcode or your phone’s fingerprint sensor. This is particularly useful if you’re using a shared computer and don’t want someone else to be able to see your conversations or download your files. To enable this, head to Settings/ Security and Privacy/ Passcode lock.