Telegram is one of the most popular and used messaging applications ever, with many interesting features. Today, however, we are here to talk to you about a program available in some countries that is truly crazy!
Telegram gives away a month of Premium to those who allow the use of their phone number
As you well know, when it comes to privacy regulations, not all countries have the same rules. We in Europe are certainly lucky, with many controls that protect our privacy, but in other countries the situation is very different and this is demonstrated by a new program launched by Telegram and available only to a limited group of users.
In particular, this is the “Peer-to-Peer Access” program which was broadcast by a popular Russian information channel. Users who opt into this program will receive a free subscription to the Premium version in exchange for their phone number, which will be used to forward OTP passwords to users for two-factor authentication.
Therefore, every month, once the phone number is used to forward a maximum of 150 messages, the user will receive a gift code of 4.49 euros to be able to purchase the subscription. A request that is almost absurd given all the privacy repercussions it could have.
And Telegram knows this well, in fact if the terms to participate in the project are accepted, not only are users advised against interacting with any message received from the users to whom the OTPs were sent, but the application declares itself exempt from any type of liability in the event of “inconvenience, harassment or damage resulting from unwanted, unauthorized or illegal actions”.
In short, a good way to save the costs that the platform has to pay to an operator for sending SMS, unfortunately the practice puts users at risk.