According to the financial management website Mint, Russian programmer Pavel Durov, creator of the instant messaging application Telegram, said today (12) that his company will never monetize users’ private data to create targeted ad profiles.
In addition to ensuring users’ privacy, Durov also ensured that he will never display 30-second ads on Telegram. “If we ever introduce ads, they will only be shown on large channels one to many” (which do not exist in any other messaging app), but never targeted based on private data, as Facebook does.
Durov’s statement was given in response to a user who said “be willing to see one or two 30-second ads a day, if that helps”, after Durov made a post stating that, now that he is approaching 500 millions of active users, intends to make money.
Future of Telegram
However, selling Telegram to a Big Tech, as the creators of WhatsApp did, is totally out of the question. Durov guarantees that “you must continue to serve the world”, which “is impossible if you become part of a corporation”.
The increase in user interest, not only for Instagram but also for Signal, has been occurring since WhatsApp last updated its privacy policy last week, forcing its users to share data with Facebook.
After ensuring that ordinary users will enjoy Telegram forever for free (as Signal also did), Durov reiterated that he intends to implement his advertising platform, to cover the costs of servers and traffic, but that it is “user friendly and respect your privacy. ”.
