Telegram is working on Sponsored messages that are currently in test mode.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov emphasised that there are no ads in private chats or group chats on Telegram.
Telegram is now in testing phase for Sponsored messages. On his Telegram channel, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said that these messages will be different from those on WhatsApp, which exploit personal user data even if the messaging network does not display adverts. Furthermore, sponsored messages on Telegram will be limited to 160 characters and will only be visible to users in big public one-to-many channels with over 1000 subscribers.
“Sponsored Messages are based solely on the topic of the public channels in which they are shown. This means that no user data is mined or analyzed to display ads, and every user viewing a particular channel on Telegram sees the same sponsored messages,” Durov noted. He further emphasised that there are no ads in private chats or group chats on Telegram. “If you use Telegram as the messenger that we launched in 2013 you will never see a sponsored message. Sponsored messages can’t appear in your chat list, private chats, or groups,” he noted.
Durov stated that user data will not be used to target ads and that the company prioritises user data protection. He claims that, unlike other applications, Telegram does not display ads using private data. He claims that Telegram users would be more “ad-free” than WhatsApp users. “WhatsApp already shares user data with marketers, despite the fact that they do not display ads themselves.” Advertisers will never get access to your personal information on Telegram. Furthermore, if you use Telegram in the same way that you use WhatsApp, you will never see a single ad,” he said.
In July of this year, WhatsApp Messenger stated that it would not apply its updated privacy policies until the Personal Data Protection Bill became law, and that the new privacy policies were on hold. Shortly after that, the Indian government introduced the original PDP Bill on data protection, which is reportedly India’s first law on personal data protection. The law, however, will most likely be implemented in phases.
