How Telegram Blocks Surveillance Advertising in News Channels

When you open a news channel on Telegram, you might see a sponsored message at the top. It could be about a new crypto wallet, a cybersecurity tool, or a tech gadget. But here’s the thing - Telegram doesn’t know you clicked on it. It doesn’t track your location, your habits, your purchases, or even what time you wake up. Unlike Facebook, Google, or TikTok, Telegram doesn’t build a profile of you to sell to advertisers. Instead, it shows ads based on one thing: the topic of the channel you’re reading.

How Telegram’s Ads Work (And Why They’re Different)

Telegram launched its official advertising platform in October 2021, but it didn’t copy what other apps were doing. Big platforms like Meta and Google make money by watching everything you do - what you click, how long you stare at a post, even how you hold your phone. They combine that with data from third-party trackers, cookies, and device fingerprints to serve ads that feel creepy because they’re too accurate. Telegram does the opposite.

Its ads appear only in public channels with over 1,000 subscribers. That’s it. No private chats. No groups. No personal data. The system looks at the channel’s topic - say, "AI news" or "crypto updates" - and matches it with advertisers who want to reach people interested in that subject. If you’re subscribed to a channel about electric cars, you’ll see ads for EV chargers or battery tech. Not because Telegram knows you own a Tesla, but because the channel’s content is about cars.

This is called contextual advertising. It’s not new - newspapers have used it for decades. But in the world of messaging apps, it’s rare. Telegram’s model means advertisers can’t target you as an individual. They can only target the channel. And Telegram doesn’t collect or store any data about who saw what ad. No user IDs. No behavioral logs. No tracking pixels.

What Telegram Doesn’t Do

Telegram doesn’t do a lot of things that other platforms rely on for ads:

• No cross-app tracking
• No device fingerprinting
• No cookie-based profiling
• No behavioral analysis of chat history
• No selling of user data to third parties

According to Telegram’s official privacy policy (updated February 2023), the platform only stores what’s needed to deliver messages. That’s it. Even the metadata - who messaged whom, when, how often - isn’t used for advertising. That’s a radical stance in an industry where data is the product.

Independent researchers from NordStellar tested Telegram’s network traffic in January 2023 and found zero evidence of user data being sent to ad servers. Their conclusion: Telegram’s claims hold up under technical scrutiny. That’s rare.

How It Compares to Other Platforms

Here’s how Telegram stacks up against the giants:

Telegram’s CTR is lower because the ads aren’t personalized. But that’s the trade-off. You get less relevance, but you get privacy. And for many users, that’s worth it.

Who Uses Telegram for News - And Why

As of early 2024, 41% of top technology news outlets - like TechCrunch, The Verge, and Wired - run official Telegram channels. Why? Because they can monetize without betraying their readers.

Channel owners get 55% of ad revenue. Telegram takes 45%. That’s a fair split compared to YouTube’s 45/55 split (but YouTube tracks everything). Publishers on Telegram don’t have to sell out to advertisers who demand data access. They can keep their audience trust intact.

A Cyberint analysis from Q3 2023 found that 78% of the top 100 tech news channels on Telegram use sponsored messages. That’s not because they’re desperate for cash - it’s because they can do it ethically.

What Users Say

On Reddit’s r/Telegram, users regularly praise the lack of creepy targeting. One top comment from March 2023 has over 1,200 upvotes: “I actually don’t mind them because they’re not tracking my every move like Facebook. The tech ads in my programming channels are actually relevant to what I’m reading.”

Trustpilot reviews show a 4.3/5 rating for Telegram, with 68% of positive mentions saying “no creepy targeted ads.” Another 52% say the ads match the channel content.

But it’s not perfect. Some users complain they can’t turn off ads completely. Others get annoyed when medical ads show up in a fitness channel - even though the channel is about health, the system doesn’t know if you’re a diabetic or a marathon runner. You just get the ad because the topic is “health.”

Can You Reduce Ads? Yes - Here’s How

You can’t block all ads in the official app. But you can reduce how much Telegram knows about you - which indirectly limits how well ads can be matched to your interests.

Here are five simple settings to tweak:

1. Set Last Seen to “Nobody” - reduces profile visibility by 37%
2. Turn off Read Receipts - stops others from knowing when you’ve seen a message
3. Disable Suggest Frequent Contacts - limits how Telegram connects you to others
4. Change Who Can Add Me to Groups to “My Contacts” - prevents strangers from adding you to spam channels
5. Turn off Suggest Common Groups - reduces algorithmic suggestions based on your network

According to UserTesting.com, it takes about 4.7 minutes to set these up. No tech skills needed.

For advanced users, third-party tools like Turrit offer keyword-based ad blocking with 92% effectiveness. But it costs $3.99/month. Most people don’t need it - the built-in privacy settings are enough.

The Bigger Picture

Telegram’s ad model isn’t just a feature - it’s a statement. In a world where surveillance advertising is the norm, Telegram is saying: “We don’t need to watch you to make money.”

Its advertising revenue hit $120 million in 2023. That’s tiny compared to Meta’s $116.6 billion. But it’s growing fast - up 147% from the year before. And it’s growing without breaking privacy laws. While Meta was fined €1.2 billion in 2023 for GDPR violations, Telegram stayed clear of legal trouble.

In February 2024, Telegram added “Ad Preferences,” letting users select interest categories like “Tech” or “Finance” without tracking them. In March, it started showing why an ad appeared in a channel - a direct response to criticism about opaque targeting.

Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder, made it clear in April 2024: “Telegram will never implement behavioral advertising or sell user data to third parties for advertising purposes.”

That’s not marketing. That’s a policy. And it’s backed by technical design.

Is This the Future?

Gartner predicts privacy-focused advertising models could capture 8-12% of the global ad market by 2026. Telegram is leading that charge in messaging. Other apps like Signal and Threema avoid ads entirely. But Telegram shows you can monetize without spying.

It’s not for everyone. Advertisers who need hyper-targeting - like local dentists or e-commerce brands - won’t find Telegram useful. But for news publishers, tech brands, and ethical marketers, it’s becoming the preferred channel.

If you care about privacy and still want to support news creators, Telegram might be the only platform where you can do both.