Zorge → Bot permissions
What a bot connected to Telegram Business can see
A connected bot sees messages only from the chats you ticked yourself, and only the ones that arrive after you connect it. Everything said before that moment stays invisible to it — no copy of it exists anywhere.
What surprises most people is the rest. Connecting does not grant one permission, it grants fourteen, and most of them have nothing to do with reading messages. Here is the whole list, what an archive actually needs from it, and how to check any of this yourself.
Every permission Telegram hands over
The set is defined by Telegram itself — the BusinessBotRights object in its developer reference — and it is identical for any bot you attach through the chatbot section of your settings, not just for ours.
| Group | What it allows |
|---|---|
| Reading and replying 2 permissions |
Read the conversation in the chats you selected, and write in them as you. The other person sees an ordinary message from you, not from a bot. |
| Deleting 2 permissions |
Delete messages in those chats: your own, and separately anyone's, including the other person's. |
| Your profile 4 permissions |
Change your account's name, bio, profile photo and @username. |
| Gifts and Stars 5 permissions |
See your Stars balance and the gifts you received, change gift settings, convert gifts into Stars, and transfer gifts and Stars away. |
| Stories 1 permission |
Post and delete stories as you. |
This is how Telegram is built, not something we ask for. The permission screen belongs to the messenger, and which boxes are ticked by default depends on your app version. You can open it and change your mind at any time, in the same place you connected the bot.
Which ones Zorge uses
One: reading messages in the chats you selected. The other thirteen are untouched, and that shows in behaviour rather than in a promise.
- It never writes in your chats. Telegram grants the reply permission and the bot receives it, but not a single message is ever sent as you. Copies of deleted messages arrive in your own chat with the bot, never in the conversation they came from.
- It never deletes. An archive only ever adds: each new version of a message is filed next to the previous one, not over it.
- It does not touch your profile, gifts, Stars or stories. There is no call to any of those anywhere in the bot — not "we would rather not", but nothing to do it with.
What is kept, and for how long
| What | How long it stays |
|---|---|
| Messages and their earlier versions | 90 days |
| Attachments: photos, files, voice notes | 30 days |
| All of it without an active subscription | 1 day |
Stored alongside each message are the other person's name and @username and the fact of the deletion itself — without those a copy tells you nothing. Archive contents are encrypted under a separate key for every user, and attachments sit in storage encrypted too.
What it cannot see at all
- Chats you did not tick. Nothing arrives from them: no messages, no deletion notices.
- Groups and channels. Telegram Business covers private chats only; group messages are never delivered to a bot in the first place.
- Secret chats. They never leave your devices, and no bot can reach them.
- Calls.
- Anything from before you connected. This is insurance going forward, not recovery of the past.
How to take the access back
Where you granted it: profile settings, the chatbot section, remove the bot. New messages stop being saved immediately — nothing needs confirming inside the bot.
What was already saved stays until you remove it. Two commands in the bot do that:
/export— download your archive./delete_data— delete it. The encryption key is rotated; only the minimum payment records stay, the ones needed for refunds and required by law.
Common questions
Can the bot read chats I did not select?
No. The chat list lives in Telegram's own settings, and nothing at all is delivered from the chats you left out — that is a limit in the messenger, not a setting on our side. You can change the list whenever you like.
Can the bot post as me?
Telegram grants that permission to every business bot and we cannot decline it from our side — but Zorge never uses it: copies arrive in your chat with the bot, never in the original conversation. You can untick it on the same settings screen.
Could the bot transfer my Stars or gifts?
Those permissions are part of the set Telegram hands over. Zorge contains no call touching gifts or Stars at all, and if it still bothers you, untick those boxes when you connect — the archive works exactly the same without them.
Will the other person know a bot is connected?
The bot is attached to your account, not theirs: they get no notification and the copies reach only you. Whether you are entitled to keep a record of that conversation is still your responsibility.
How do I see which permissions I already granted?
On the same Telegram settings screen where the bot was added. The permission list stays open and editable at any time; you do not need to reconnect anything.
What happens to the archive if I disconnect the bot?
New messages stop being saved straight away, and what is already stored stays until its retention runs out — or until /delete_data, which removes it and rotates the encryption key.
Next
How to connect a bot to Telegram Business — step by step, with screenshots, and what to do when the section is missing.
Zorge privacy — what is stored, for how long, and who else is involved.