Telegram founder stops short of promising user data is safe

Telegram's founder spoke about user privacy. We are more confused than ever.

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov posted an account in his public Telegram channel about his history of protecting user data from the Russian government. He says he stands for his users no matter what. Their right to privacy is sacred. More than ever.

He posted a link to a post that said he had no regrets about standing up to the government and that he would do it again without hesitation.

Tweet may have been deleted

Durov doesn't give an assurance that Telegram's user data is safe. Durov speaks both Russian and English, so perhaps he used a translate-like tool to help compose the post. Taking his posts at face value, the statements he made are not an assurance that he won't hand over data to the Russian government.

The dominant social network in Russia is still founded by Durov. The Russian government pressured Durov to give them the data of Ukrainians who were against the Ukrainian leader, according to his post. Durov fled the country after he refused and is now a French citizen. The state is in control of VK.

He later founded Telegram, a platform that has both one-to-one and group messages, as well as public channels, which are ways people can broadcast views and news, and which can act like forums. The Russian government tried to shut down Telegram, but ended up dropping the initiative in 2020. As of 2020, it has 38 million monthly active users in Russia, making it the second largest messaging platform in the country.

Durov has a history of protecting user data at great personal risk. Telegram is not an end-to-end platform, which makes it vulnerable. Telegram won't give government regimes data, so users have to trust that. It is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556

Durov calls out some people who are concerned that the fact that he lived in Russia might compromise Ukrainian security. He tells the story of the conflict because he is Ukrainian on his mother's side.

Telegram has become the dominant messaging platform for discussing the war in Ukraine and Russia, so it is helpful to hear from the founder. The post does not go far enough to allay user privacy concerns.