From Telegram to Session: Navigating Privacy in the Era of Data Breaches

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Over the past decade, privacy has become of utmost importance to tech users globally, particularly with instances of high-profile data breaches continuing to make headlines. The gravity of this situation was starkly illustrated earlier this year when cybersecurity researchers uncovered a colossal database leak encompassing an astounding 26 billion records. 

The stolen information originated from a wide array of major platforms, including social media giants like X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn, file-sharing service Dropbox, creative software provider Adobe, and even the popular messaging app Telegram. 

Messaging platforms, in particular, have increasingly become targets for bad actors. Line, Japan’s largest messaging app, recently suffered a massive data breach — resulting in the leak of 440,000 items of personal data — due to unauthorized access to an affiliate's computer system. 

Similarly, in December 2022, it was reported that the personal data of around 500 million people had been breached on WhatsApp and was available for sale on the dark web. Not only that, just three years earlier, the messaging giant had been the target of another hack that saw the data of over a billion users surface online.

Lastly, even the privacy-oriented, end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal was severely compromised a couple of years ago when miscreants gained access to the phone numbers and SMS verification codes of almost 2,000 users.

A real, tangible alternative to Telegram is here

Over the past couple of years, Telegram has gained immense popularity around the globe — boasting a monthly user base of 900 million individuals (as of March 2024). However, despite its emphasis on data security and privacy, its recent data leak has highlighted certain areas where it falls short in providing the level of privacy and decentralization that many users seek. 

To elaborate, Telegram has faced criticism for its approach to user privacy, especially its MTProto protocol, which some experts argue lacks the robustness of other high-quality encryption standards. 

Not only that, while the platform offers end-to-end encryption for secret chats, this feature is not enabled by default for all conversations. Lastly, Telegram's centralized infrastructure — with founder Pavel Durov effectively being in charge of handling the security of its near billion user base — has raised concerns about potential data breaches and government surveillance. 

In this context, Session has quickly emerged as a messenger service offering a compelling alternative for those prioritizing absolute privacy and freedom from surveillance. It does so by addressing many of the aforementioned issues head-on with its innovative approach to secure data exchange. 

For starters, Session minimizes sensitive metadata and provides end-to-end encryption by default. Also, unlike Telegram, which requires a phone number for registration, it allows users to create completely anonymous accounts without the need for any personal information. 

That said, Session's most significant advantage over Telegram is its decentralized architecture. While Telegram relies on centralized servers, Session leverages a blockchain-based architecture to route and temporarily store messages. 

This approach eliminates single points of failure and makes it incredibly difficult for any entity to shut down or censor the platform. Moreover, by distributing the network across numerous nodes, Session significantly reduces the risk of large-scale data breaches. 

Even if an individual node were to be compromised, the limited information available would be insufficient to compromise user privacy.  

Not only that, but Session's group chats, which support up to 100 participants, maintain the same level of encryption and privacy as one-on-one conversations. For larger communities, Session offers a feature similar to Telegram's channels, allowing users to connect with unlimited participants while preserving anonymity.

This commitment to privacy extends to its voice messaging and file-sharing capabilities as well. All attachments and voice messages on Session are transmitted through the platform's onion-routing network, ensuring that no metadata is left behind. 

Lastly, unlike Telegram, which has faced criticism for its closed-source server-side code, Session's entire codebase is open for public scrutiny. This allows security experts to audit the platform independently and reveal any issues in real-time.

The future of privacy and blockchain’s growing role in it

As the realm of digital communication continues to manifest itself in our everyday lives, there is enough data to suggest that the need for individual privacy will continue to grow in the near future.  

While Telegram has undoubtedly made strides in popularizing encrypted messaging, Session has quickly positioned itself as the far superior option for those who demand the highest levels of privacy and security. In fact, over the past year alone, the platform has amassed an active user base of over a million customers.

Furthermore, its commitment to anonymity, decentralization, and open-source development makes the platform ideal for those individuals who view privacy as a fundamental right. Therefore, looking ahead, it will be interesting to see how this space continues to evolve and grow, especially over the coming few months.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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