Security News > 2023 > April > Google Mandates Android Apps to Offer Easy Account Deletion In-App and Online

Google is enacting a new data deletion policy for Android apps that allow account creation to also offer users with a setting to delete their accounts in an attempt to provide more transparency and control over their data.

"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 product management for Android App Safety, said.

The goal, the search behemoth said, is to have a "Readily discoverable option" to initiate an app account deletion process from both within an app and outside of it.

To that end, developers are to provide users with an in-app path as well as a web link resource to request app account deletion and associated data.

Should users submit such a request, it's required of app developers to purge all data associated with that account.

"Temporary account deactivation, disabling, or 'freezing' the app account does not qualify as account deletion," Google explicitly spells out.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2023/04/google-mandates-android-apps-to-offer.html