In this article
A mini app can ask where you are. Say yes and it gets real coordinates — the kind that put a pin on a map, not the vague city-level guess a website makes from your connection.
Nothing has it by default and nothing keeps it after you close the app. Everything else about the decision is yours.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Tell which requests are reasonable.
- check_circle Know exactly what the permission covers.
- check_circle Withdraw it from one app without affecting others.
- check_circle Get the result you wanted without sharing anything.
The request names the app asking and what it wants; nothing moves until you answer it.
location_on What the permission covers, and what it does not
It covers the app you granted it to, while that app is open, at the precision your phone can manage. That is a narrow thing and the narrowness is the point: there is no background version, so a mini app cannot follow you through the afternoon after you have closed it, and it is per app, so agreeing once does not agree on behalf of the next one.
What it does not cover is anything that happens afterwards. Once a set of coordinates has reached a developer's server, Telegram is no longer the question — the app has them, can store them, and is bound only by whatever it promised you. The permission decides whether they get a reading. It cannot decide what they do with it.
That is the real weight of the decision, and it is why "only while open" is comforting about the wrong thing. One reading from your kitchen is enough to know where you live. The point of refusing is not to prevent tracking so much as to avoid handing over an address you would not have typed out.
When to share it, and when to decline
The test is whether the app can show you something it could not show without it.
near_me Reasonable to share
block Not worth sharing
Grant it when the app owes you an answer that depends on where you are. Otherwise the search box is better for both of you.
settings Granting and withdrawing it
- Read which app is asking The request names it; the name is the decision.
- Ask what it will show you If nothing on screen depends on it, decline.
- Notice where you are A reading from home is your address.
- Grant it for the thing you came to do Then close the app to end it.
- Withdraw it in the app's own menu Permissions are held per app, not globally.
- Type the address instead when you can Same answer, nothing handed over.
This page is one permission on one screen. The curriculum step is the whole picture: which settings decide what strangers can learn about you, how they interact, and why the defaults are worth one afternoon of attention.
At a glance
- 1Location requests
Mini apps ask separately for your location.
- 2One reading
Even one location can reveal your home address.
- 3Type it instead
Search for a place rather than sharing yours.
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