back to article Telegram crypto-chat chap says Apple has 'restricted' its app updates worldwide

Telegram backer and self-proclaimed "global entrepreneur" Pavel Durov has blamed a lack of updates to his app on Apple "not siding with us" in the ongoing furore in Russia over the crypto-chat platform. In a post on his own Telegram channel today, Durov apologised for some features not working under just-released iOS 11.4. He …

  1. justAnITGuy

    Bye bye Apple?

    So for whatever reason you feel the need to use Telegram app to do your daily communications. Apple complies with Russia's request and blocks for updates now and who knows what else in the coming times.

    Surely the answer then is not to entrust your "security" to Apple and to move off to another well known platform upon which you could, if necessary, sideload Telegram or whatever else. A platform that Russia could not hope to control so easily as it has Apple.

    Walled gardens are fine for as long as they're fit for [your] purpose.

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: Bye bye Apple?

      Surely the answer then is not to entrust your "security" to Apple and to move off to another well known platform upon which you could, if necessary, sideload Telegram or whatever else.

      Actually - just the opposite. Moving to apple's platform itself (facetime, iMessage, etc) is the safest bet. Apple cannot and will not compromise its own platform.

      1. Tigra 07
        Meh

        Re: Bye bye Apple?

        "Apple cannot and will not compromise its own platform"

        Apple will do whatever it can to maximise profit. They'll quickly throw Telegram under the bus to keep access to the Russian market as money is all that matters to them. They have no morals. Google did the same in China.

        1. gnasher729 Silver badge

          Re: Bye bye Apple?

          "Apple will do whatever it can to maximise profit. "

          And compromising its own platform is the quickest and easiest way to stop many, many people from buying, and to reduce profits. Apple knows that.

          And you might think what happens if Telegram is not allowed on iOS, and Russian authorities find you using an Android phone with Telegram side-loaded. They may not be able to decrypt it, but they most likely can identify the traffic and find users.

        2. No 3

          Re: Bye bye Apple?

          ?? Google basically completely withdrew from China. No Google services are available/work in mainland China.

          What exactly are you referring to?

      2. Paul Crawford Silver badge

        Re: Bye bye Apple?

        Would this be an Apple's platform that stores everything on the iCloud and is handed over on request to any official government request?

      3. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Bye bye Apple?

        Moving to apple's platform itself

        What if your contacts don't have that option? And what about the encryption? I thought Apple only ensured private key encryption on the devices themselves?

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Bye bye Apple?

        Actually - just the opposite. Moving to apple's platform itself (facetime, iMessage, etc) is the safest bet. Apple cannot and will not compromise its own platform.

        Nope. The best combination is using Apple hardware, but hooked up to a non-US. iOS (and MacOS) apps support all open standards out of the box so you don't need to do anything special to hook it up to carddav and caldav compliant hosts, which, in addition to the usual IMAP/SMTP covers pretty much the needs of most end users.

      5. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Bye bye Apple?

        "Apple cannot and will not compromise its own platform."

        *cough* Apple Maps *cough*

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Tim Cook having his Alabama moment...

      Tim Cook having his own Alabama moment, siding with the establishment.

      I think Cook's forgotten Alan Turing's plight and why people/society will always need software frameworks, independent of political oversight.

      If people like #hashtag Amber Rudd weren't reason enough.

  2. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

    "It usually takes around a week for Apple to either approve an app or give some indication as to why it has been rejected."

    I seem to recall it taking two months of requests for more informations, tweaking and resubmissions for one border-line feature to get through. I was surprised, because I was expecting a draconian "no" (and then we'd roll out our back up plan).

  3. jaduncan

    Apple: Do be Evil

    Well, it took a while but at this point they have undeniably become the Big Brother on the screen. Being a lickspittle for dictatorships is little better than administrating one.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apple have never really played ball...

    ...years ago, when at the NHS, we had NHS Mail. I may get some of this wrong as it was over 9 years ago. You could view your NHS mail on a personal device as long as it had separate encryption token or something. Annoying that I now can't remember. Anyway, it was something specific that the exchange would look for on your device. If it saw it, you could get NHS Mail, if it couldn't see it, you couldn't access it (probably more complicated than that but still)

    Anyway. I had a iPod Touch at the time. It turned out, Apple were, either via a bug or on purpose, sending a flag back to the Exchange claiming it had this feature installed, when it didn't. So you could then access NHS Mail on that iPod Touch without any lock key enable or any other security. I believe this "issue" was on tech sites at the time.

    It took Apple about a year to admit it and patch it. And that was a year I had NHS Mail on an unsecured iPod Touch to prove a point no one was checking.

    But then that was with a trust that, after having left for months, left my NHS mail account open so for months, that iPod Touch was still getting e-mails. Until, eventually, I got bored of it and wiped it yet the account stayed open.

    1. Tigra 07

      Re: AC

      Doing the same again would likely land you in prison, rather than the personidiot who set it up

    2. gnasher729 Silver badge

      Re: Apple have never really played ball...

      If sending a flag to the exchange server is enough to get you e-mails that you shouldn't get, then the security on the exchange server is absolutely broken. Not Apple's fault. The exchange server should require _proof_ that it is you, not a flag claiming it's you.

      1. Timmay

        Re: Apple have never really played ball...

        @ gnasher729

        I suspect he doesn't mean you could access email accounts without any credentials, but rather you could access the account (with your credentials) with a device that didn't meet the security requirements the server requires - such as remote wipe ability, enabled lock screen PIN security, encryption, etc. Basically, the iThing lied to the Exchange server saying it met those requirements, so the Exchange server let it in (with the credentials supplied).

      2. Adam 1

        Re: Apple have never really played ball...

        > If sending a flag to the exchange server is enough to get you e-mails that you shouldn't get, then the security on the exchange server is absolutely broken

        Not at all. Exchange is implementing security via the RFC3514 flag.

  5. gnasher729 Silver badge

    What likely happened is that Telegram submitted an upgrade, to be published in all countries (including Russia), and Apple either fulfils that request or doesn't - they won't change what you asked for. Submitting again with Russia removed from the list of countries will probably fix the problem.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Might not be quite enough. Telegram might have to ask for the availability of the app to be changed so it's no longer available in Russia, then resubmit the update. Of course then Apple could claim that *they* didn't remove the app from the Russian app store, it was the developer what did it...

  6. Oengus

    I do love an optimist...

    "The Register has contacted Apple for comment"

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