Telegram will never monetise users’ private data for profiling for targeted advertisement: Pavel Durov

CEO and co-founder of Telegram Pavel Durov. (PC-Steve Jennings/Getty Images via AFP)

Telegram founder Pavel Durov on January 11 stated that his instant messaging app will never monetise users’ private data for profiling for targeted advertisement.

"We will never force you to view 30-second ads on Telegram. If we ever introduce ads, the ads will be shown only in large one-to-many channels which are expensive to run due to server and traffic costs (like my channel @durov) and not targeted based on any private data (unlike Facebook). So, no collecting private data, no user profiling etc. And if you don't use our one-to-many channels (which are non-existent in all other messaging apps), you won't see a single ad," Telegram founder Pavel Durov said.

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Durov added that those users who use Telegram for peer-to-peer private communication and don't use Telegram’s one-to-many channels are not going to see any ads.

"All parts of Telegram devoted to messaging will remain ad-free. We think that displaying ads in private 1-to-1 chats or group chats is a bad idea. Communication between people should be free of advertising of any sort," he added," he said.

Last week, Telegram's competitor too made a similar commitment to its users stating on its platform there will never be ads. Ever since Facebook-owned WhatsApp updated its privacy policy last week, both Telegram and Signal have seen an uptick in downloads and user interest.

Apart from this, Durov also hit out at Signal. He said, "Signal represents one feature of Telegram, which is Secret Chats. If you think you need a separate app for that feature only, installing it might make sense for you," adding, "Personally though, I find Secret Chats much more usable—and secure. After PRISM I have trouble trusting anything US-based, let alone cryptographers funded by the US government."

Earlier, Durov had said Telegram has over 500 million active users and assured them he will not sell the company like the founders of Whatsapp.