Telegram, part trois
No response from Telegram support to my question about contact permissions. Hm.
I guess I now get to decide whether I want to let it back on my phone, when I’m reasonably certain it’s scraping new data or someone is actively misusing the contact identification features of the app. I guess I need to assess whether I’m prepared for it to out my private profile to more family and coworkers before proceeding.
Not an easy decision to make, but I might just say fuck it.
Telegram, part trois
@Lingondraken I didn’t save the exact text, but I roughly asked the following:
Over the past two weeks, I’ve had two “X has just joined Telegram” messages seemingly from folks that would have my main phone number, but not my Telegram number or contact. I’ve denied the app contacts access on my end since it was first installed and never shared my Telegram number with anyone, which makes this interaction weird — it shouldn’t be in their contacts either. (1/2)
Telegram, part trois
@Lingondraken I went back to confirm their identity later, since I had added them to my block list immediately, and I found the names were no longer ones I recognized.
Which leads me to hypothesize either this is some data integration by Telegram gone awry, or some folks spoofing the contacts interface in some way? Not sure. (2/2)
Telegram, part trois
@Lingondraken PS: I’m aware of how Telegram normally connects contacts to each other (ie, by phone number in your contacts or theirs). That interaction shouldn’t be happening here, unless they’re pulling data from a different source than phone contacts for the primary account number. Or I missed something in how they handle this integration.