Google will require Android apps to make account deletion easier

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Google’s latest developer policy aims to give Android users more control by allowing them to delete their account data on apps that require you to create an account, even if you don’t currently have the app installed.

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Right now, developers simply need to tell Google that deleting the account is somehow possible, but starting next year, developers will have to make it easy to delete data both through their app and through an online portal . Google specifies:

For apps that allow app account creation, developers will soon need to provide an option to initiate account and data deletion from within the app and online.

This means that any app that allows you to create an account to use it is necessary to allow you to delete that information when you’re done (or rather, request the developer to delete the data from their servers). While you can request that your data be deleted now, you usually need to manually contact the developer to have it removed. This new policy would mean developers have to offer a kill switch from the start rather than letting Android users do the legwork.

The web unsubscribe requirement is particularly new and needs to be easily identifiable. Developers should provide a link to a web form from the app’s Play Store landing page, with the idea of ​​allowing users to delete account data even if they no longer have the app installed. Under the existing Android developer policy, all apps must disclose how they collect and handle user data. Google introduced the policy in 2021 and made it mandatory last year. When you enter the Play Store and expand the Data Security section under each app listing, the developers list the data collection based on the criteria.

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Simply removing an app from your Android device doesn’t erase your data completely. Like the software on a desktop operating system, sometimes files and folders are left behind from when the app was running. Hopefully, this new policy will help protect your data by deleting all unnecessary account information from app developer servers, but it also hopes to reduce excess data on your device. Conversely, you don’t need to delete the data if you plan to access the app later. When it says you have a choice, Google wants to make sure it can point to something obvious.

It’s unclear how Google will determine if a developer follows the rules. It is up to the app developer to disclose whether user-specific app data is actually deleted. Earlier this year, Mozilla called Google after it discovered significant discrepancies between the top 20 internal privacy policies of the most popular free apps and those listed in the Play Store.

This new app rule won’t go into effect until at least next year. Developers have until December 7 to respond to Google’s data security survey, in which they reveal what kind of data they’re collecting and whether it can be deleted. Android users should start seeing the changes reflected early next year. But developers can request an extension until May 31, 2024 to comply with the policy.

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