Google introduced a brand new account deletion coverage for Android apps in the present day, which signifies that apps that supply account creation should have a simple option to delete the account as nicely. The corporate mentioned that it’s going to begin implementing this coverage someday early subsequent 12 months. This transfer follows Apple, which applied a similar policy on June 30, 2022 for apps on the App Retailer.

The corporate mentioned that it’s going to ask builders to reply questions relating to their app’s information deletion in the Data Safety form by December 7. The developer responses within the type are mirrored in Google Play’s Data Safety section, which supplies customers with details about an app’s information assortment practices within the type of labels.

Google talked about that with this new coverage, the corporate will tweak the Knowledge Security part on the Play Retailer to higher replicate the information controls out there to them. The search giants mentioned that someday early subsequent 12 months customers will begin seeing information deletion badges on Google Play on apps which have accomplished their types and modified their code to permit account deletion.

Picture Credit: Google

The search big mentioned that apps should present “an choice to provoke account and information deletion from throughout the app and on-line” and the function needs to be simply discoverable. Plus, the coverage additionally requires builders to delete the person information from their servers on account deletion. If a developer must preserve person information for particular causes, they have to specify that within the app.

“As the brand new coverage states, if you fulfill a request to delete an account, you need to additionally delete the information related to that account. The function additionally offers builders a method to offer extra selection: customers who could not need to delete their account completely can select to delete different information solely the place relevant (equivalent to exercise historical past, photos, or movies). For builders that have to retain sure information for legit causes equivalent to safety, fraud prevention, or regulatory compliance, you need to disclose these information retention practices,” Google mentioned in its announcement.

The corporate will present an prolonged grace interval till Might 31, 2024, for builders who may want a while to implement this. However they might want to explicitly apply for it by means of the Google Play console.