Securing oneself on Telegram

Telegram, the messaging app, isn’t well known for cooperating with the law enforcement agencies in providing any kind of data of any users. Due to this and various other factors, it has become quite popular amongst extremist groups as well. With over 200 million users worldwide, this application has become a “go-to” destination for criminals to commit frauds and not face any consequences for it. Therefore it becomes extremely important, to secure ourselves by at least enabling the inbuilt security features of the platform, to protect oneself.

1. Enabling Two Factor Verification

This is the most important feature when we use any kind of Social Media Platform. Two-factor verification on telegram lets one enable a password, which will be required additionally, in case any other person tries to access their account on the platform. Here is how one enables it.

1. Go to “Settings” -> go to “Privacy and Security” -> Select “Two-Step Verification”
2. Press “Set Password”, enter a desired alphanumeric password, and hint.
3. Enter recovery Email Id
4. Enter the code sent on your entered Email Id.

 

2. Enabling Secret Chats

Telegram does not automatically enable End-to-End Encryption, between two users, and store the chats on their servers. While they claim that this is for the convenience of users as they can recover the chats anytime they want but it is well known that the platform is not in the good books of the government agencies in terms of data privacy implementation. It is however mentioned in their terms and conditions that they don’t comply with government requests for data sharing if the said information is not in the public domain. At the same time, it makes the user data and conversations prone to snooping by the platform or their third-party partners. Here is a way through which one can avoid it.

1. Press the 3 bars on the platforms top left corner
2. Go to “ New Secret Chat”
3. Select the person to whom one wants to send a message.

 

3. Profile Linking for ‘Forwarded messages’

There is a feature on the platform, which allows one to link their name along with your message to someone, in the case they wish to forward it. This is actually a great feature if one thinks about it. It solves the problem of fake message forwards, which is quite prevalent on WhatsApp. One can simply identify the source of the message to check the authenticity of it, and in the case where a link for the name is not enabled, it can raise concern in the minds of a receiver who just received the message or is far along the end of the forward chain. Here is how one can explore and enable the feature.

1. Go to “Settings” -> go to “Privacy and Security” -> go to “forwarded messages”
2. One can enable the setting as per their wish (a link to an individual’s profile will only be available if the setting is set to “Everybody”)