You currently need a phone number to sign up for Telegram. Add an option to sign up using an email address or another method, like some messengers do (e.g., Wire, Matrix, Threema, Session).
Potential spam issues could be mitigated by:
Only allowing addresses from major email providers at first and slowly expanding reach if it's manageable.
Automatically limiting such accounts from contacting strangers until their perform some additional actions.
Allowing group admins to prevent such accounts from posting by default.
Use Cases
Avoiding an identifier tied to your identity, hiding identity from governments or people who know your number.
Workaround
Use a virtual phone number.
Warning: Do NOT use temporary numbers to connect to your account, as you may lose access to your account when you lose access to the number.
I think you are moving away from the initial proposal. The initial proposal wants that the telephone number should never be entered, neither during registration nor during login. Mixed registration and login solutions can be proposed, they are fine, but this proposal is clear: a registration and authentication method that does not require a telephone number as a requirement at any time, as the telephone number can lead to identification of the person
As mentioned in the FAQ (https://telegram.org/faq#q-do-you-process-data-requests), Telegram uses a distributed infrastructure. No single government or block of like-minded countries can force Telegram to disclose users data. Telegram can be forced to give up data ONLY if an issue is grave and universal enough (i.e. global terrorism) to pass the scrutiny of several different legal systems around the world.
It does not work like that. Just like you are connected to only a server when you are using Telegram, Telegram has your phone number in that server. Datas can be splitted, encrypted, whatever, but as some point those data needs to be retrieved and decrypted: in that precise moment, governement can access to server and read data.
"Cloud chat data is stored in multiple data centers around the globe that are controlled by different legal entities spread across different jurisdictions. The relevant decryption keys are split into parts and are never kept in the same place as the data they protect. As a result, several court orders from different jurisdictions are required to force us to give up any data." (Telegram FAQ)
Telegram's uses a client-server encryption using a 2048-bit key shared by the client device and the server. The key is created upon user registration directly on the client device by exchanging Diffie-Hellman keys, and never transmitted over a network. (https://core.telegram.org/mtproto/description#authorization-key-auth-key)
This makes impossible for the government or other entities to intercept & access your data, unless you give them access to your device for some mysterious reason.
You can check how Telegram's custom protocol works (https://core.telegram.org/mtproto) and, if you doubt it's secure and think that someone can intercept & successfully decrypt your messages, just let Telegram know.
You don't seems to understand. We are not talking about intercepting network traffic. We are talking about simply accessing a telegram server, by going directly and phisically to it. Those servers need to have at some moments the plaintext of your number, or else how could they send it to you?
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MTProto is a protocol, as its name suggests, and it works for describing how data are transfered, we are talking about something completely different: a government can simply going phisically to telegram servers to read data
All data not covered by end-to-end encryption (everything except secret chats) is split and shared between Telegram's distributed infrastructure. Servers are located in multiple data centers around the globe and they cannot be accessed directly & phisically without warrants / court orders from multiple governments.
Also, these data centers are located in countries where freedom of speech is guaranteed (and even there Telegram doesn't take it for granted).
It's not a matter of how complicated the process of obtaining the phone number, and so the identitiy of the person, is. It's about that it's possible. It should be impossible. Do you know how to make it impossible? By simply not giving telegram the phone number. If the phone number does not "exist", then it can't be retrieved
There is nothing that is 100% impossible — you could be identified and traced even with an email address, since all email providers ask you for your data. Or you could be identified and traced by your IP address.
The process of obtaining just a single bit of information about a Telegram user is pratically impossibile, it would require dozens of developed, free & safe countries (where Telegram's servers are located) to get together, modify their principles, deny freedom of speech and order Telegram to disclose users data. But yeah, of course there's a very tiny percentage chance of obtaining your data.
🤷♂️ Then you are probably violating that email provider's terms of service. And if the data you provided (such as first name or last name) is related to an existing person, you are committing a crime (impersonification and/or identity theft)
Log in here to report bugs or suggest features. Please enter your phone number in the international format and we will send a confirmation message to your account via Telegram.
Telegram's uses a client-server encryption using a 2048-bit key shared by the client device and the server. The key is created upon user registration directly on the client device by exchanging Diffie-Hellman keys, and never transmitted over a network. (https://core.telegram.org/mtproto/description#authorization-key-auth-key)
This makes impossible for the government or other entities to intercept & access your data, unless you give them access to your device for some mysterious reason.
You can check how Telegram's custom protocol works (https://core.telegram.org/mtproto) and, if you doubt it's secure and think that someone can intercept & successfully decrypt your messages, just let Telegram know.
Also, these data centers are located in countries where freedom of speech is guaranteed (and even there Telegram doesn't take it for granted).
number does not "exist", then it can't be retrieved
The process of obtaining just a single bit of information about a Telegram user is pratically impossibile, it would require dozens of developed, free & safe countries (where Telegram's servers are located) to get together, modify their principles, deny freedom of speech and order Telegram to disclose users data. But yeah, of course there's a very tiny percentage chance of obtaining your data.
False. And I can simply fill it with false information