Google makes it easier to delete your accounts on Play Store apps

“Data” is one of those buzzwords that everyone throws around without any real regard for what it is or what it consists of. In terms of what kinds of data that apps downloaded from the Google Play Store collect, people can expect at the bare minimum for their name, email addresses, and other personal info to be collected. Past that, location data, other app usage, and more can be collected, oftentimes causing us to ask, “Why does this app need to know this about me?” While Google has done an admirable job of improving the safety of its app store, increasing the ease of cutting off app developers’ access to your personal data has become paramount, and Google just took steps towards better control of that concept.

On June 13, Google’s Andy B, a Play Product Support Manager, posted a new entry to the Play support community to explain a new way to delete unwanted accounts and related data from previous apps that people have downloaded, even after they’ve deleted them. For apps that allow you to create accounts from within, you’ll see a “Data deletion” entry when scrolling down on the app’s Play Store entry. There, you can press links that will take you to the developer’s website to request to have your entire account deleted or to simply have specific data, like activity and transaction history, removed.

Better protection of your personal data

It should always be simple to both consent to sharing your information with app developers and to revoke that same consent. When deleting an app from your devices, usually, it’s an indictment of your need for that same app’s account; you’re probably not going to need it anymore. App developers will still be able to access the data you’ve consented to sharing with them even after deleting it from your device (even if it won’t be up-to-date anymore). Last year, we gained wind that Google was forcing developers to include links to a web-based data deletion request page in their Play Store listing. This was supposed to be completed by Dec. 7, 2023, but Google allowed an extension request that would take that deadline to May 31, 2024. Obviously, that extension data has more than passed.

While a Mozilla study last year showed that, in Mozilla’s opinion, the Play Store’s data safety labels are essentially worthless, we’re at least happy that the issue of data control has continued to be discussed. Two weeks ago, Google started its staged rollout of the feature, and it finally seems to have gone live. For example, taking a peek at the TikTok listing on Android reveals its data deletion section that you can use to delete your TikTok account. On that note, TikTok is having its own data collection issues stemming from its Chinese ownership roots in the United States and is facing a potential ban (again), and AP has got you covered in its coverage.