Privacy Policy

SERIOUS

FIRST SEEN 2026-08-22 · VERSION 20260822_rev01 · COMPARED WITH 20260801_rev01

What changed, in plain language

Telegram narrowed its long-standing promise that it doesn't use your data for ads. The old policy said flatly "We don't use your data to show you ads." The new version only promises not to use the contents of your private chats and contact lists. Telegram now openly describes ad targeting based on your approximate country and city (guessed from your phone number's area code or your IP address) and on the categories of large public channels you follow. Ads also expand beyond public channels into bots, stories, and Telegram's public search. Telegram says this data is never handed to advertisers, and paying Premium users see no ads at all.

Changes that may affect you

Your data can now be used to target ads at youSERIOUS

DATA COLLECTION

The old policy promised Telegram didn't use your data to show you ads. The new one only promises to leave your chat contents and contact list alone. In practice, Telegram now uses your approximate country and city — guessed from your phone number or IP address — and the kinds of large public channels you follow to decide which ads you see. That is behavioral and location-based ad targeting that the previous policy said wasn't happening.

“We don't use the contents of any of your chats or contact lists to show you ads.”

What you can do — If you don't want this, check Settings > Privacy & Security for any ad-related toggles in your app version, and consider unfollowing large public channels whose topics you don't want tied to your ad profile. Telegram Premium subscribers are excluded from ad targeting entirely.

Location estimated from your phone number and IP addressMATERIAL

DATA COLLECTION

Telegram now works out roughly which country and city you're in, using your phone number's area code or your IP address, so advertisers can limit ads by region. Telegram says this is not precise GPS tracking and that the location is never passed to advertisers, which limits the damage — but it is still location-based profiling that wasn't described before.

“To keep ads relevant, ads can be shown in a **particular country and city**, approximated based on the country and area code of a user's phone number or their IP address.”

The only clear way out of ad targeting is to payMATERIAL

OTHER

Telegram doesn't describe a free opt-out switch for this ad targeting. It says the data is processed under its own "legitimate interest" rather than your consent, and the one exemption it spells out is being a paying Telegram Premium subscriber. If you're in the EU or UK, you can still use your privacy rights to object to processing based on legitimate interest.

“Telegram Premium users don't see ads and are not affected by the Ad Platform. Targeting-related data referenced in this section is not processed for such users.”

What you can do — In the EU/UK, you can object to processing based on legitimate interest using the rights in section 9 of the policy — contact Telegram's support or its EEA representative listed in section 12. Otherwise, a Telegram Premium subscription removes ads.

Ads spread into bots, stories, and searchMINOR

DATA COLLECTION

Sponsored messages used to be limited to public channels. They can now also show up in bots, stories, and Telegram's public search results, and search terms you type can decide which ads appear next to them.

“By default, these sponsored messages are based solely on the topic of the public channels or search terms in which they are shown.”

Changelog

± CHANGEDThe "no ads from your data" promise got much narrower
Telegram used to promise it did not use your data to show you ads, full stop. Now the promise only covers the contents of your chats and your contact list. Other data about you can be used for ads.
We don't use your data to show you ads.
We don't use the contents of any of your chats or contact lists to show you ads.
± CHANGEDAds now appear in more places
Sponsored messages used to run only in public channels. They can now also appear in bots, stories, and Telegram's public search results. Channel ads are limited to channels with at least 1,000 subscribers.
Telegram offers a [tool](https://promote.telegram.org/) for advertisers to promote their messages in [public one-to-many channels](https://telegram.org/tour/channels), but these sponsored messages are based solely on the topic of the public channels in which they are shown.
as well as in bots, stories, and Telegram's public search
+ ADDEDAds can be targeted to your country and city
Telegram now estimates where you are from your phone number's country and area code, or from your IP address, and uses that to decide which ads you see. Telegram says it does not use GPS or other precise location tracking for this.
ads can be shown in a **particular country and city**, approximated based on the country and area code of a user's phone number or their IP address
+ ADDEDAds can be targeted to the topics of channels you follow
If you follow enough large public channels in a category like Finance or Humor & Memes, you may be shown ads from that category elsewhere in the app, including in other channels and bots. You may also see ads picked based on the specific channels you follow.
Users following a sufficient number of large public one-to-many channels (e.g., _Finance, Business & Entrepreneurship, or Humor & Memes_), may see ads from that category in other large public channels or in other bots as well.
+ ADDEDTelegram says ad data stays in-house and Premium users see no ads
Telegram states the targeting data is not shared with advertisers or any other third party, and that Telegram Premium subscribers don't see ads and don't have this targeting data processed about them at all.
This data cannot be disclosed to any third parties - advertisers included.
+ ADDEDLegal basis for ad data is "legitimate interest," not your consent
Telegram says it processes this ad data because it has a business interest in doing so, rather than asking you to agree to it first. It adds that your existing privacy rights in section 9 still apply.
The data relied upon to serve ads is processed on the basis of Telegram's legitimate interest of delivering effective and innovative Services to you.
± CHANGEDChangelog entry and a date typo fix
A new entry dated August 21, 2026 was added describing the advertising update, and an old changelog entry's year was corrected from 2022 to 2023.
**February 3, 2022**
**August 21, 2026**

Full text changes — 20260801_rev01 to 20260822_rev01

COLOUR MARKS THE SEVERITY OF A FLAGGED CLAUSE · + AND − MARK ADDED AND REMOVED

 This Privacy Policy sets out how we, Telegram Messenger Inc. **("Telegram")**, use and protect your personal data that you provide to us, or that is otherwise obtained or generated by us, in connection with your use of our cloud-based messaging services (the **"Services"**). For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, **'we'**, **'us'** and **'our'** refers to Telegram, and **'you'** refers to you, the user of the Services.
 #### 1.1 Privacy Principles
 Telegram has two fundamental principles when it comes to collecting and processing private data:
+- We don't use your data to show you ads.
+- We don't use the contents of any of your chats or contact lists to show you ads.
 - We only store the data that Telegram needs to function as a secure and feature-rich messaging service.
 #### 1.2. Terms of Service
 This Privacy Policy forms part of our Terms of Service, which describes the terms under which you use our Services and which are available at **[https://telegram.org/tos](https://telegram.org/tos)**. This Privacy Policy should therefore be read in conjunction with those terms.
 We may also store some aggregated metadata to create Telegram features (see [section 5.5]() below) that work across all your devices.
 #### 5.5. Advanced features
 We may use some aggregated data about how you use Telegram to build useful features. For example, when you open the Search menu, Telegram displays the people you are more likely to message in a box at the top of the screen. To do this, we calculate a rating that shows which people you message frequently. A similar rating is calculated for inline bots so that the app can suggest the bots you are most likely to use in the attachment menu (or when you start a new message with "@"). To turn this feature off and delete the relevant data, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Data Settings and disable "Suggest Frequent Contacts".
+#### 5.6. No Ads Based on User Data
+#### 5.6. No Ads Based on Contents of Chats or Contact Lists
+Unlike other services, we don't use your data for ad targeting or other commercial purposes. Telegram only stores the information it needs to function as a secure and feature-rich cloud service.
+Unlike other services, we don't use the contents of your private chats or contacts lists for ad targeting or other commercial purposes. Telegram only stores the information it needs to function as a secure and feature-rich cloud service.
+Telegram offers a [tool](https://promote.telegram.org/) for advertisers to promote their messages in [public one-to-many channels](https://telegram.org/tour/channels), but these sponsored messages are based solely on the topic of the public channels in which they are shown. No user data is mined or analyzed to display ads or sponsored messages.
+Telegram offers a [tool](https://promote.telegram.org/) for advertisers to promote their messages in [public one-to-many channels](https://telegram.org/tour/channels) (with 1,000 subscribers or more), as well as in bots, stories, and Telegram's public search. By default, these sponsored messages are based solely on the topic of the public channels or search terms in which they are shown. No contents of private chats or contacts lists are mined or analyzed to display ads or sponsored messages.
+> Telegram Premium users don't see ads and are not affected by the [Telegram Ad Platform](https://ads.telegram.org/).
+##### 5.6.1. Additional advertising tools
+> Non-intrusive advertising models help us sustain our Services. The data relied upon to serve ads is processed on the basis of Telegram's legitimate interest of delivering effective and innovative Services to you. This data cannot be disclosed to any third parties - advertisers included.
+>
+> Telegram Premium users don't see ads and are not affected by the Ad Platform. Targeting-related data referenced in this section is not processed for such users.
+In large public one-to-many channels (with **1,000 subscribers or more**), and public search results, ads may be shown based on the language of the content - however, that language may be common to several different countries. To keep ads relevant, ads can be shown in a **particular country and city**, approximated based on the country and area code of a user's phone number or their IP address. This data is never passed to advertisers, no other geolocation data is used, and no precise location-tracking is involved for these purposes. This makes it possible for advertisers to restrict ad visibility to certain countries or regions - for instance, creating an ad for Spanish-speaking audiences but opting not to display it within Spain.
+Users following a sufficient number of large public one-to-many channels (e.g., _Finance, Business & Entrepreneurship, or Humor & Memes_), may see ads from that category in other large public channels or in other bots as well. Users may also see ads selected on the basis of the channels they follow. This data is never passed to advertisers.
+> Your rights described in section 9 below remain unaffected.
 ### 6\. Bot Messages
 #### 6.1. Ecosystem
 Telegram has an API that allows third-party developers to create [bots](https://core.telegram.org/bots). Bots are apps that look like special Telegram users: you can talk to them from your chat list, add them to groups or use a special ["inline"](https://telegram.org/blog/inline-bots) interface to access their features. By performing any of these actions, you will be sending some of your data to the respective third-party bot developers.
 - Added [8.4. Translation of Messages at the Request of the User]() and [8.5. Transcription of Voice Messages at the Request of the User]().
 **September 8, 2022**
 - Expanded [3.2. Your Email Address](https://telegram.org/privacy) with information on login emails.
+**February 3, 2022**
+**February 3, 2023**
 - Updated 8.4 and 8.5 to reflect the new premium feature that allows translating entire chats.
 **April 24, 2023**
 - Updated 1.4, 9.2 and 12 to update the details of Telegram's EEA representative for GDPR matters.
 - Updated [8.3](), see [this post](https://t.me/durov/345) for more details.
 **September 29, 2024**
 - Updated [10.4]() to reflect the new default time period for Account Self-Destruction.
+**August 21, 2026**
+- The Privacy Policy was updated to describe geographic limitations and other advertising tools that may affect the ways how ads are displayed.
 Important changes made to this Privacy Policy will be notified to you via Telegram.
 ### 12\. Further Information
 If you have any questions please feel free to explore our [FAQ](https://telegram.org/faq) or contact Telegram's Volunteer Support in-app via _Settings > Ask a Question_.