Telegram was founded in 2013 by Pavel Durov, who is also responsible for Russia’s leading social media network, VKontakte (AKA VK). The network has over 200 million monthly active users who access its services on Android, iOS, and desktop devices.

If you're looking to easily delete your data from the network, you've come to the right place. In this article, we'll walk you through the steps of deleting your data and account on Telegram.

How to delete your Telegram account using any browser

• Visit the app’s My Telegram portal using any online browser
• Type your Telegram credentials to sign in
• Choose “Delete Account link” 
• Explain why you want to delete your Telegram account
• Select “Delete My Account” 
• Click “Yes, Delete My Account”
  

According to Telegram, the above steps will permanently delete both your account and your data from the company’s servers. 

If you wish to keep managing your data on other apps and websites, <nofollow>signup to Mine<nofollow>, and view a list of all the companies that have access to your personal information. Choose which ones to keep and which to remove. 

Telegram and data privacy

Even though many users joined Telegram searching for a more private messaging platform, the app has been criticized for a few vulnerabilities. One complaint has to do with its level of encryption, which fails to protect chats from end-to-end. Full encryption has to be activated by users who use the “secret chat” option and doesn’t cover conversations with people outside the users’ contact list. 

Telegram recently changed its privacy definitions to include a lot more information under the ‘Data linked to you’ section. Now, Telegram wants access to users’ location, financial information, purchases, and more. It remains unclear how relevant this information is to the app’s functionality, and the high level of sensitivity is quite alarming. 

A few other things worth mentioning

Users who want to delete their Telegram account only if it becomes irrelevant can also visit the app’s settings and set a timer; if they do not use the app during that time, the account and data will be deleted. This isn’t a temporary deactivation process, and it cannot be reversed, so bear that in mind.

Remember that deleting your account doesn’t remove the app from your device, and you must perform both actions to fully block Telegram’s access to your data. If you want to export your data, you can do so through the desktop app.

If you are wondering which additional services are holding your data, sign in to Mine and start managing your digital footprint, it's easy as one, two, three!

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