The messaging app Telegram has been gaining wide popularity in recent years. It was launched in 2013 by Pavel Durov, and since then, it has served over 950 million users worldwide, which is quite impressive. Telegram has many amazing features, such as group chats, file sharing, and high user capacity. The best thing about this app is that it is easy to navigate for both personal and professional use. But the real question is always about how safe Telegram is, considering that digital privacy and online security have become a growing cause for concern globally. This article explores the various uses of Telegram along with its security measures, potential risks, and some useful tips for having a secure experience, especially when children are using it.
What is Telegram used for?
Telegram has many advanced features that cater to several user requirements. Following are the many notable functionalities that make it a great messaging app.
- Group chats and channels
The best thing about this messaging app is that it enables group chats for up to 200,000 members, which is amazing for people who want to include a broader community or team for discussion or chat. The channel features help users easily and seamlessly broadcast their messages to a much larger audience. Those are especially required for content creators running their businesses and managing big organizations.
- File sharing
This app supports sharing files of up to 2 GB. Moreover, Telegram is considered a go-to platform for exchanging documents, large-sized videos, and other media since the big transfer size allows the media to be transferred easily without compromising quality.
- Bots and integrations
Telegram has a special feature called the bot API, allowing developers to create tools seamlessly. They can automate tasks based on their specific requirements, such as managing chats, sending reminders, and integrating the app with third-party services.
- Personal activism and business communication
Many activists and businesses use the Telegram app to communicate securely. It has various security features such as encryption, large user capacity, and ease of access, making it a very suitable option for conducting team collaborations.
Set parental controls and monitor online interactions to protect your kids on Telegram with ease.
Is Telegram chatting end-to-end encrypted?
When it comes to how safe Telegram is, you can understand this by the two types of chats Telegram offers that have different levels of encryption in them. These chats are:
- Regular chats
Regular chats are stored, particularly on Telegram’s servers, while syncing several devices, allowing you to access the chat anytime you want.
Such a kind of chat is encrypted between your device and Telegram’s server; they are still not classified as end-to-end encrypted, which means that Telegram can still decrypt the messages in these chats anytime they want.
- Secret chats
The second kind of chat is the secret chats, and they are designed for users who particularly seek enhanced privacy, which is why secret chats are essentially end-to-end encrypted. This kind of encryption ensures that no one other than the sender and the recipient can access the contents of the chat.
Even though secret chats give the user a much-advanced level of security, the manual setup in Telegram essentially means that many of the chats in Telegram by default do not possess end-to-end encryption.
How safe is Telegram?
Like many other great messaging apps, Telegram prioritizes user privacy. However, just like every app, it also has its limitations. Following are some of its primary safety features:
- Data collection and sharing – A great thing about this messaging app is that it collects extremely minimal data. What it collects are the IP addresses of the user and the kind of device they are using. Moreover, the app only retains this information for up to 12 months. Apart from this, in case of a valid legal request, such as suspected terrorism, the app will comply and share the data with the relevant authorities.
- Two-step verification – Another safety feature in the app is the two-step verification, a more advanced security setup. Log-in requires a set password and an SMS code, allowing users to access the app only after verification. This is great for preventing your chat from being accessed by unauthorized users further.
- Self-destructing messages – Telegram’s secret chats also give another option: set the messages to self-destruct after a certain period. This feature greatly enhances the privacy of extremely sensitive chats. But it also gives some users the illusion that it is safe to share inappropriate content on it.
- Age limits and verification – There is a particular minimum user age in Telegram’s terms of service mandate, and that age is specified as 16. But like many apps out there, the age verification process is not very stringent. It means that underage users, even though they are not allowed, can still easily access the app, which often leads to inappropriate interactions and content.
Security and safety concerns with Telegram you should know
Over the years, much controversy has been related to Telegram’s security and safety. Let’s break down more details.
Illicit activities
It’s worth noting that the app provides various features like self-destructing messages and secret chats. These features may have initially been developed to enhance privacy. However, malicious online users often find them attractive as they can help evade law enforcement.
Inappropriate content
When it comes to online safety, ensuring that the content available on the platform is safe is necessary. However, doing so on Telegram is challenging due to its messaging and privacy protocols.
The platform has also built an infamous reputation for being a distribution medium of adult content. It’s worth noting that content is, most of the time, made or shared without the consent of the individuals and falls under breaching someone else’s privacy.
Cybercriminals and phishing
Cybercriminals often exploit the app because of its perceived anonymity for illicit activities such as sending out sensitive information, selling illegal goods, and hacking tools. Such exploits are another major security concern.
Those adult content files with malicious software may infect the devices. The malicious software allows online criminals to exfiltrate user data, perform remote actions, or carry out other cybercrime initiatives such as financial fraud.
Inadequate vulnerability detection
Even though Telegram has some great safety features, it has still received criticism concerning particular vulnerabilities and risks associated with the app. Telegram has a particular security protocol, the custom MTProto encryption protocol. It makes other independent security researchers unable to verify its strength and identify potential vulnerabilities.
In addition, the platform has faced multiple data breaches over the years and the lack of encryption puts user data and privacy at increased risk. Some of the most notable data breach scandals that Telegram has faced over the years include:
The Iranian User Data Leak. In March 2020, a database containing 42 million records of Iranian Telegram users’ IDs and phone numbers was exposed online without a password.
The Star Health Data Breach. In September 2024, India’s Star Health sued Telegram after a hacker used the app’s chatbots to leak personal data and medical reports of its customers.
The Credential Leak. In June 2024, a massive trove of 361 million email addresses from credentials stolen by password-stealing malware was leaked on Telegram. These compromised credentials were added to the Have I Been Pwned database.
How to use Telegram securely?
Telegram is a popular messaging app, but it comes with security risks as we shared above, especially for little ones. No worries! There are some tips for parents and readers who are concerned about safety, especially for younger users. You’ll want to focus on practical steps that parents can take. By using privacy settings, enabling encryption, and monitoring chats, you can minimize exposure to potential dangers.
- Enable the two-step verification
You should manually enable the two-step verification to add an extra security level. After all, you would have to enter your password as well as the SMS code to log in.
- Adjust privacy settings
Telegram offers various privacy settings to help control who can see your child’s phone number and profile picture and who can contact them. You can restrict the “Privacy and Security” options so only trusted people can reach out.
- Be selective with shared information
Never share any kind of personal or sensitive information in chat, especially when it is in public groups or community channels.
- Monitor children‘s Telegram group chats and channels
This is necessary. Before allowing your children to use the app, you should alter the privacy settings so that anyone except those they know cannot contact them, which greatly limits their potential exposure to public groups. You should also discuss any relevant safety practices.
- Utilize parental monitoring tools
Many apps help parents monitor and manage their child’s device usage and online interactions. FlashGet Kids is one of the top-rated solutions for you. It offers a set of comprehensive parental control features to help filter out inappropriate content, keep an eye on kids’ social media activities, and block toxic apps/websites while also limiting their screen time. Most importantly, it runs stealthily in the background, giving parents a better understanding of their children’s online habits and behavior.
Safe alternatives to Telegram for kids
In many circumstances, the features of Telegram might not align with the safety concerns you have for your child. In such cases, you can try out some other secure alternatives.
A great example of these alternatives is Messenger Kids, a messaging app launched by Facebook. First and foremost, the app is designed explicitly for children and comes with good parental controls.
Some of these parental controls include:
- Account Management: The child’s Messenger Kids account is always managed through a parent or guardian’s account.
- Supervised Friending: Parents can see who their child has befriended on the app.
- Contact Management: It allows parents to monitor their child’s contact list and ensure they can remove individuals from that list.
- Activity Monitoring: Parents can see who their child is talking to and what they are sending and receiving on the app.
- Sleep Mode: Modern social media apps can be highly addictive, especially for young children. However, the Messenger Kids app comes with a Sleep Mode feature that lets parents decide the day and times on which the child can use the app.
- Data Management: This is another great security feature that allows parents to download all of their kid’s contacts, images, videos, and messages to monitor whether the child is using the app safely or not.
Final verdict: Is Telegram safe?
The safety of Telegram depends on how you use the app. The advanced features of the app, along with its commitment to privacy, do make it quite a powerful tool when it comes to communication. However, certain features, such as the lack of default end-to-end encryption and the potential misuse by cybercriminals, pose concerns. Users can counter these issues by using two-step verifications and secret chats, making them self-destructive.
Parents, especially, need to constantly monitor their child’s app usage while exploring other alternatives for messaging that have more advanced parental control. Take proactive actions to ensure kids get a more secure experience. Ultimately, Telegram is a safe option, but like any other app, its safety depends on awareness and proper precautions.
FAQs
Telegram chats are essentially encrypted. However, the cloud chats can be easily accessed by Telegram, whereas the secret chats cannot be easily traced because of their end-to-end encryption feature.
The app does not share your location by default. If you want to share your location with anyone, you have to choose the option manually or you can use the option of “People Nearby” to find users who are near to you.
You can easily adjust the privacy settings if you want to hide your phone number to restrict its visibility. By default, your phone number is only shown in the app to people you have added to your contact list.
