GOOGLE is making sure that Android users are not trapped with accounts for apps they don’t want – and that their data isn’t locked in either.
It’s a tough new rule the tech giant is imposing across all Android apps.
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Google will essentially ban apps from letting users open accounts they can never delete as well as have that app keep hold of their data forever.
From next year, the Google Play store will require apps to have a “readily discoverable option” for deleting your account.
It is a bid to give Android users more control over their data, as concerns over data privacy continues to rise despite efforts in recent years to secure a fair deal for tech consumers.
It also follows a similar policy move by Apple which came into effect in June of last year.
“For apps that enable app account creation, developers will soon need to provide an option to initiate account and data deletion from within the app and online,” Bethel Otuteye, senior director of Android App Safety, explained in a blog post on Wednesday.
“This web requirement… is especially important so that a user can request account and data deletion without having to reinstall an app.”
Speaking to Android app developers, Otuteye said: “As the new policy states, when you fulfil a request to delete an account, you must also delete the data associated with that account.”
Letting a user temporarily deactivate or freeze an account won’t be enough to meet the requirement.
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Apps will need to have a good reason to keep hold of that data, too.
Be it your activity history, images or videos – Android apps will have to give Google a “legitimate” excuse for not deleting it.
These reasons might include security, fraud prevention or regulatory compliance.
Android apps now have until December to tell Google what data they wish to keep and why.
But Google Play users will begin to see the effects of this rule in full force in 2023.
“Early next year, Google Play users will begin to see reflected changes in your app’s store listing, including the refreshed data deletion badge in the Data safety section and the new Data deletion area,” added Otuteye.
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