Telegram is not a secure messenger, it offers the same level of non-security as skype or fb messenger - not even that of watsapp.
For starters it doesn't give my raw metadata including who I talk to, when and so on to Zuckerberg, or unencrypted chat logs of both sides of a chat to servers in USA.
And the Durov brothers weren't running a massive ad and tracking network last I checked.
> There's a lot of problems around Telegram from their marketing to their crypto implementation to their incentives.
That said there are multiple ways around the monetization problem as long as you aren't trying to become a Silicon Valley unicorn:
- 1 USD pr user like WhatsApp
- Paid stickers and storage like MeWe
- Extra storage and extra features like Evernote
- Paid API access
- etc