Telegram CEO Claims Apple Has 'Prevented' App Updates Globally Since April 35
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.
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Guess I need to go look up what the "telegram" app is and what it does...apparently Russia doesn't like it.
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-Soviet Russia
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Da, comrade mister!
Possible Scenario (Score:2)
I have no knowledge of the internal configuration or architecture of Apple's App Store, but perhaps there is an explanation to be found there. Perhaps Apple has a mechanism to "freeze" an Application in the store [which might explain why updates are not surfacing] but can only do this globally, as opposed to just within one country or legal jurisdiction?
I think the implied situation, namely that the Russian government challenges the use of an Apple application and some
one countrie's? (Score:2, Informative)
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That was a miss judgement.
Only wan probe lem (Score:1)
Multi pool new out lets - Arse Technic A and Theverge - re port that App-le is re stricting up dates to Tele gran's app a cross the globe. The out age comes at time when Rusian govern mint has in struct ed App-le to Bahn the sec you're maggaging ap. No re sponse from App-le as to the re son, thought pre-venting sec-urinary up dates globally in re sponser two one county's re quest seems queue ite a misjudgement tucan a grue.
I know that copy editing is a ding art, but come on!
If only... (Score:3, Funny)
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yes jailbreak the entire device to load one app update... that is truly thinking of the security
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You can, via iTunes Application on a Mac or Windows.
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If only Apple provided some way to side-load applications...
They actually provide several, is that confusing you?
Subject (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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The answer is almost certainly not, except to the extent that logistically they may be unaware of your chats or if any archived data is stored out of country. It's very clear that
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I wished Signal and Wire didn't require phones' numbers if I don't use smartphones.
Use Conversations (Score:2)
Use Conversations or other program that uses standard XMPP protocols. Conversations has built in end-to-end OMEMO encryption.
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Is that what Google Hangouts/Talk/Chat use? It is also hard to get people to use other services. Most of them just use unsecured SMSes and Google Hangouts/Talk/Chat these days. :(
Crackable Holdout (Score:1)
Since Russia seems to have requested Apple to prevent upgrades, my guess is the unpatched version is crackable by Russia and they lose that as soon as Apple lets out the update. So Russia's trying to do their spying/crime prevention/anti-terrorism work before Apple relents and lets the update happen.
Switch to Signal (Score:2)
And on Android you could just download and update from a website, if a government would force Google to remove it from the Play Store, or block security updates.