So what is the date of birth used for? To identify you.

Telegram also collects data. Is Telegram a data seller? Admittedly, that’s a bold claim. Telegram stood out during the COVID-19 crisis for not engaging in a mass deleting spree, unlike YouTube, Facebook, and so on. Pavel Durov moved Telegram from Russia to Dubai to, as he says, prevent Russia from laying claim to the data. Now he’s selling that data. To higher bidders? I don’t know yet. In any case, Telegram doesn’t censor, but it does sell the data. How did I come to this conclusion?

Have you entered your birthday yet? Why does Telegram need your birthday? In a store, when paying by invoice, you’re usually asked for your date of birth as well. But only then. If you pay by credit card, your date of birth doesn’t matter. So what’s the purpose of the birthday? To identify you. Even if your name is Hans Müller, it becomes legally binding, so to speak, and the data in Telegram also becomes more valuable when sold.

That’s what this is all about: the monetary value of your data on the data market. That’s why Telegram asks for your birthday—not because your friends want to know when you’re celebrating. In other words: Your date of birth helps increase the revenue of Pavel Durov and his employees. And that revenue likely comes mainly from selling the data to data-collection corporations.

The lack of censorship attracted everyone interested in the truth to Telegram. And you’re learning that censorship isn’t the same thing as data protection. Even if a platform doesn’t censor content, it can still violate data privacy. Whether Pavel Durov does this is just speculation. I can’t prove it. However, what will you do if Telegram requires an eID tomorrow?

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