The 9 Years Of Telegram, The Privacy And Pavel Durov

The History And Money For Telegram

Telegram started in 2013 and is now used as a messaging application that is available on android, windows, Linux, and others. One can download Telegram from the play store. You can chat with each other by text and audio. Telegram claims that they are either private or can be organized in groups. One can exchange files through the app. The company claims itself as privacy-focused and does not share data with anyone. One can also create temporary chats (called Secret Chats) whose messages will be deleted after a certain time. The headquarter of Telegram is currently in Dubai and was founded by the two Russian brothers Pavel and Nikolai Duravit.

While there is a lot of interesting stuff about Durav and the Russian government including various political leaders, VKontakte’s which made them Zukerberg of Russia and their escape to caribbean island with great wealth is for the next part The one major thing which stood is the coming out of Edward Snowden about their government just before the launch of the Telegram, which might be a coincidence. In November 2017, Russian IT watchdog Roskomnadzor has forced Telegram to shut down various channels and groups where disturbing content was shared. The major team of Telegram came from Vkontakte which is majorly owned by the government indirectly. After a few setbacks, Durov has agreed to provide the data to the Russian ministry about their terrorist suspects which made Telegram grow at a fast pace in Russia. This would take me a whole month to get deep into the history of it so let’s just see how it makes money in short.

Telegram makes money by selling sponsored messages which allow users to promote their Bots and messages. The Ad platform was launched on the Durov Platform itself. Advertisers can set a maximum budget and not overspend.

The Gram, The Leak, And The Pro

Telegram announced in 2018 that they will be launching their blockchain with their native currency called Gram. They rose to a staggering amount of more than 1.7 Billion dollars. They set the date to 31st Oct 2019 but just two weeks before they were halted by SEC. In May 2020 Paul himself announced that they will be abandoning the project and settled with an $18.5 million fine. There is a similar project called Free Ton and their blockchain but investors should be aware as various fake projects have also arisen with the same name.

Telegram claims itself as one of the most privacy-focused messaging apps and does not share its data with third parties. According to the sources from a German website, spiegel.de Telegram has released users’ data to the BKA. They have shared information regarding child abuse and Terrorism and criminal offenses. In 2018 Paul Durov announced that they will be sharing IP addresses on the court order but not much has been seen since. The billionaire founder Paul has made a statement that Ukrainian identity is protected with telegram, But the signal founder has said that Urban Ukraine is using Telegram profoundly but it is not as secure as it should be. If one sees the history of the Telegram with its watchdogs of Russia it might be possible( It is only the author’s opinion). Various spokesperson of Telegram have argued against this FUD.

Since the abandonment of the blockchain project of Telegram, many have argued that telegram might begin a Pro feature for their paying users. It will be more privacy enabled and can have various things. It is not clear when this will come forward or will Telegram do anything else. In a recent statement on his Telegram Channel Pavel pointed out that how Apple is crippling its web features and making users download their apps so that they can charge 30% commission.

Signal Vs Telegram

The major question to ask here is “Does Telegram store all my Data”. If yes then it is breaking the fundamental of privacy. The famous programmer and the signal founder Marlinspike has said that Telegram stores all your data and sees it. In the plain text he said that delete your telegram from your phone and install it in some other you will see that your chats will reappear because it has been stored on the server. He also pointed out that there is no E2E chat by default. Marlinspike has said that there is no major difference between Facebook Messenger and Telegram. Telegram does have server-client encryption which is not much different from others.

Let’s make a little comparison between Signal and Telegram

Telegram has optional end-to-end encryption meanwhile on signal all chats are encrypted by default.
Telegram has a local backup by default on servers, Signal does have the same but it is off by default
Telegram has less screen security meanwhile Signal screen security is good.
Self-destructing message feature is available for secret chats on Telegram but on the signal, it is available for all. Signal also has private group systems

Don’t we all Have somethings to Hide

Privacy technology is not about trusting someone else with your data. It is not about having to. If I send you a message it should be visible to you and me only. My contacts should be with me and not with anyone else. This is what privacy with users should be about and not about running a billion-dollar algorithm to influence people’s thinking to their benefit. I have nothing against telegram as they have made a strong leap into private messaging. But do we need to go further the answer is “Yes”?