What do you think of this from privacy POV?
They could just stop requiring phone numbers, which would be a lot more privacy friendly.
But unfortunately it would make spamming much easier
It’s doing an absolutely terrible job of stopping spammers.
Isn’t that an inherent fault of Telegram though?
I use SimpleX, and unless I join one of the large discussion groups there cannot be any spam. You cannot just join anything except open groups. If you spam you get booted by whoever started the group.
Terrible, of course. Especially since they are aiming the service to improve sign-up reliability in countries that block telegram, acting as a relay exposes yourself. Carriers in China (where I live) and other questionable countries are actively snooping around, and since SMS are generally unencrypted, the simplest heuristic would figure out what you’re involved in and start a very serious investigation.
On top of that, phone numbers in many countries are also unique logins to a number of services (again, here in China you need it for literally everything, it’s THE number one digital footprint), and attackers could use the information for bruteforce/wordlist attacks on known services, or use them for social engineering.
As much as I like the idea of helping others sign up who don’t have the means to acquire a foreign phone number, I would never willingly commit to that.
There’s some incredible insight here.
On top of that, phone numbers in many countries are also unique logins to a number of services (again, here in China you need it for literally everything, it’s THE number one digital footprint)
This is one reason I particularly dislike companies that require phone number “verification” either immediately when registering, or sometime after. Services like Microsoft, Twitter, Discord, Facebook, all find a reason to request it at some point. And that request often seems to be related to whether or not they can pin down your actual identity or not…
Especially since they are aiming the service to improve sign-up reliability in countries that block telegram
It’s mainly to offload the cost of sending verification codes via sms to users, which is one of the costs that Telegram wants to cut. As far as I remember, it amounts to, like, 7% of all their annual expenses (I will source this later). A couple of years ago they decided not to send sms verification codes when you sign in from a third-party app, and just send the code to active session. This sounds like recipe for moderation headaches and privacy disasters, but also good way to boost their premium metrics :)
Can somebody explain in simple terms with this is even supposed to do? Do you end up sending an SMS message on Telegram’s behalf to random phone numbers that request it?
I’m pretty sure this practice, no matter how lightweight it might be, would be considered against many carriers’ TOS. And I wasn’t aware Android now allowed people to send text messages in apps besides the default one, suppressing that ability was considered a huge deal a while back.
For whatever reason, ppl need SMS OTP. While Telegram is using SMS operators (like Twilio), it can’t covers all users globally (which the truth is more about cost and regulations), thus this program is born to cover (bypass) it.
It uses your number to sent the OTP code to random numbers on Telegram behalf, up to 150 per month including international SMS, where you bear the cost and aknowledging your number will be seen by who recieve it. In return, if your monthly send SMS reaches the quota, Telegram will reward you with a monthly Telegram Premium Subscription (which cost almost nothing to them).
What a joke program.
Edit: express in more clarity (they -> Telegram)
Crazy. Become a telegram sms relay… Doesn’t seem like a great idea for the user.
They are rewarding you with premium (i.e. some extra features in the app) for relaying sms and exposing your phonenumber to strangers ig?
For now… Giving this capability to a app seems foolish.
If you value premium enough, I’m sure lots of people will agree to it.
I think if its opt-in, then kinda fine…, else it’s a nightmare.
It’s opt-in, of course
Opt-in for the SMS recipient too?
I’m still trying to figure it out, but I guess not. The only thing I’m sure about is that you will know whether the OTP code has been sent by Telegram or a P2PL relay
Yes, and you pay for those sent SMS, 150 per month (may include ‘non-free’ International as well), and than you receive pretty useless premium subscription. Privacy wise it sounds very bad, as your number is exposed.
You can decide to send sms codes only within your country. You decide whether the tradeoff between costs, privacy and features is worth it. Sending 150 sms a month (or a magnitude more) would cost me 0 €. I find some of the premium features worth paying for. But I would never relay OTP codes for telegram
I send thousands of SMS per month with a cost of zero. Even international.
It’s all included in my $40/mo plan.
Someone could benefit being relay, I just won’t share my number to the world, lol. I have an option to make virtual numbers 1$ per month, maybe that could be an option if subscription could be received for another number. But I dont care much about subscription.
At least it’s opt in. But fucking hell, that’s a horrible idea
Such feature should never be in a consumer IMS because it can be activated accidentally. If you want to let your users become relays, do it at least like the registration for Ubuntu Pro
