Telegram founder commits to Ukraine user privacy

The billionaire Russian-born co-founder of messaging app Telegram has told Ukrainian users their data is safe.

In a Telegram post, Pavel Durov, who lives in Dubai, wrote: "I stand for our users no matter what. Their right to privacy is sacred - now more than ever."

Telegram was Ukraine's most popular messaging app - the Observer newspaper reported.

But some experts have raised concerns about the security of users' data.

Moxie Marlinspike, who developed the encryption used by rival platforms Signal- which he created - and WhatsApp, tweeted many users thought Telegram was an encrypted app, but it was "by default a cloud database with a plaintext copy of every message everyone has ever sent/received".

Telegram maintains everything stored on its cloud is securely encrypted, however while all of its data is protected only some of its features use end-to-end encryption.