Under E2EE, decryption keys are stored only on devices, meaning that governments cannot eavesdrop by demanding keys from service providers. Unsurprisingly, governments hate this, leading to suggestions in countries like the US and UK that the technology could be outlawed at some point.
Ironically, Telegram does not use this technology automatically, instead relying on standard server-side encryption where the service provider holds the keys. The app offers a limited version of E2EE called ‘Secret Chats’ but this can be difficult to set up.
That means Telegram can automatically see what’s being said if it wants to but, according to the French charges, it refused to cooperate when asked to release information during a police investigation.
Source link