Google Play Store Flags Apps with Account Deletion
Google’s digital app store, Play Store, now tags applications that allow for permanent account and data deletion.
- Google has mandated that all developers introduce easy account deletion and data removal or risk consequences.
- As little as this gesture is, it makes a difference in allowing you to have a say in where your data goes.
Google’s digital app store now flags apps that allow users to permanently close their accounts and delete all associated data, ensuring more user control over sensitive information.
In April of last year, Google announced that it now mandates all apps on its Play Store to have an ‘easy’ account deletion. All developers must build their apps with permanent account deletion in mind, both through the app and a web interface, while also offering data removal services.
And as the May 1st deadline steadily approaches, Google’s digital app store is now adding a badge to all apps that have complied. The badge, which reads “Account deletion available,” can be found in the ‘Data Safety’ segment of the app listing.
You can request from the developers to delete your account and all associated data without having to reinstall the app if you’ve deleted it already.
If the apps don’t offer clear and accessible account deletion, they will face “enforcement actions,” which include removal from Google’s digital app store.
Google seeks to give users control over their data. It wasn’t enough to just make it mandatory; they made sure that the users could install applications with all the needed information in mind.
It may seem like this is not as big a deal. However, please consider that some people rely on their phones and apps to keep track of critical information. And they expect to protect their sensitive data. Some use it to track their menstrual cycles; others to their medications. Some even have their whole medical history cataloged and chronicled on their phones because they deal with chronic illnesses.
And for the longest time, some apps felt predatory in the sense that they would ‘hold hostage’ your information and account indefinitely, even if you decided that the experience was subpar. You either leave behind all your information or stay to keep some sort of control over your sensitive data.
With this update to Google’s digital app store, people, specifically those who document their lives through apps, have better control over where to store their data. And if they don’t want a certain application anymore, they will always have an out.
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