Google is pushing developers who allow the creation of user accounts within their mobile applications for the Android platform to also offer the possibility, and be easily identifiable, to be able to carry out the request for their deletion, both from the applications themselves and externally.
This is the latest measure to date that is embedded in its initiative on data security in the Play Store, which since last year has allowed users to know the data collected by applications and the use made of them. from their own files through the new data security section.
To have greater control over your own personal data
By early next year, mobile apps that offer the ability to perform user account removal requests will have a specific badge on their listings on Google Play, and users will also begin to have a new area focused on data deletion.
In this way, those who have deleted the applications from their devices and still have user accounts, the Play Store will also offer the links so that they can carry out their account deletion requests without having to reinstall the applications.
Currently, the data security section of the Play Store only states that users will be able to request data deletion.
For when total removal is not possible
Google tells developers that temporarily deactivating, disabling, or “freezing” the account will not be considered deletion of the account.
And for those cases in which it is necessary to retain a series of data from user accounts for different legal reasons, for example, for the fight against fraud, the applications must clearly inform users of this from sections such as may be dedicated to privacy policies.
This is a measure that Google is taking slowly worldwide, taking as a first step that developers have to respond to the new questions received and send them before December 7 of this year, making it possible to reflect the answers in the tabs of their applications at the beginning of the following year.
In addition, developers will be able to defer response submissions to new questions by submitting an extension request via the developer console until May 31, 2024.
In this way, users will be able to have greater control of their data, being quite common for users to uninstall mobile applications that they no longer need keeping their accounts still available unconsciously.
