Relevant text under 5.1.1 (v):<p>> (v) Account Sign-In: If your app doesn’t include significant account-based features, let people use it without a login. If your app supports account creation, you must also offer account deletion within the app. Apps may not require users to enter personal information to function, except when directly relevant to the core functionality of the app or required by law. If your core app functionality is not related to a specific social network (e.g. Facebook, WeChat, Weibo, Twitter, etc.), you must provide access without a login or via another mechanism. Pulling basic profile information, sharing to the social network, or inviting friends to use the app are not considered core app functionality. The app must also include a mechanism to revoke social network credentials and disable data access between the app and social network from within the app. An app may not store credentials or tokens to social networks off of the device and may only use such credentials or tokens to directly connect to the social network from the app itself while the app is in use.
>If your app doesn’t include significant account-based features, let people use it without a login...Apps may not require users to enter personal information to function, except when directly relevant to the core functionality of the app or required by law. If your core app functionality is not related to a specific social network (e.g. Facebook, WeChat, Weibo, Twitter, etc.), you must provide access without a login or via another mechanism.<p>Ok, shoutout Apple for this. But shouldn't they apply their policy intent to themselves too? I can technically use an iPhone without an AppleID, but you need to login to download apps. I would argue installing apps shouldn't require a login.
A few years ago I was part of an AI customer service startup. One of our first customers was a web hosting company, and we were supposed to take some of the load off the chat support team.<p>When we talked to the support team they told us their by far largest task was handling account deletions. They had tried to just put a button in the control panel, but the CEO of the company thought it was bad for retention.<p>So we started writing scripts for "I want to cancel my account" and similar requests. The official process also required the users to verify by email after talking to support, so there were a number of steps. Eventually we needed an API call for actually completing the process. But we were told the CEO had to approve.<p>The CEO didn't know we were working on automating account deletions. And when we finally got to talk to him about giving us API access, he decided it would be easier to just add an account deletion button to the control panel.
That's how we lost our initial business case.
I’ve seen quite a lot of people complaining about this on Twitter. Is there some negative to this I’m not aware of other than companies losing customers? I’ve come across more and more sites in recent years with no account deletion option and it’s hugely frustrating. One I discover it and manage to shut my account down via a support channel they have lost me for good. There is no way I’m ever becoming a customer again because I can’t trust them with my data if they’re going to hold it hostage. If they’d included the account deletion option I very well may have returned in the future.
Expectation: Apps offer account deletion, finally empowering the user.<p>Reality: Apps no longer support seamless account creation and instead redirect the user to a website to register, user can no longer manage any aspect of their account from the app.
It would be great for this to be reestablished as the norm for online services.<p>I think some might argue that being able to intercept a user at account deletion via support gives them the opportunity to either solve a misunderstanding in the product or better understand why the user is leaving but I think there are much better ways to accomplish this. I’m more convinced this is done as a dark pattern to add friction to the deletion process.<p>A notable example was having to contact support to delete a Starbucks account.
This will be interesting for companies who have a combined account for multiple applications.<p>How do you clearly explain to a user that if they delete their account on app X, apps Y and Z will also have all of their account data deleted?
I hope they finally crack down on Instagram (and maybe some of Facebook’s other apps?) which make you go to the browser to deactivate/delete your account. I’ve done this a few times (temporarily deactivate) and requiring me to switch to the browser first and login with my IG credentials — something I would never otherwise do — seems like a sneaky way to drop a tracking cookie in my browser before I leave for a while.
'Right to forget' is required in EU, and it's been illegal in California since 2018 for subscription services that take signups online to not offer online cancel options too (i.e. without being forced to call customer service). <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/04/californias-new-online-cancellation-law-benefits-many-disgruntled-subscribers-in-other-places-too/" rel="nofollow">https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/04/californias-new-online-can...</a><p>Visa cc passed new policy in 2020 and New York did in February 2021. So the infuriating practice of forcing us to call or go through chat loops to quit a basic subscription are numbered. I feel strongly enough that I started brightback.com in 2018 to help make online cancels easy for app/saas developers to offer while keeping it simple for the customer.
A related question about this: if an account was flagged for something (e.g. the account was shadow banned), is it OK by GRPD standards to:<p>1/ not tell the user this info.<p>2/ keep track of the fact this account was flagged after the account was deleted, for instance by keeping a hash of the email address of the accounts that were flagged?
An interesting corollary: A software supporting file creation must also support deletion. A user can create a document in Microsoft Word and save it. Why can't they also delete it from within Word. If they have an open document, where's the delete button to just delete it. :-)
Hackernews should also provide account deletion option.
In case of accounts getting doxxed for people who do not want it. Account deletion will help in saving fallout.
Based on a quick Cmd+F this document doesn't explicitly define what 'Account deletion' must be. Does it just mean that the user does no longer exist on the app's frontend, but all data is retained? Or does it explicitly mean that all data relevant to that user is deleted?
> How do you cancel your Clubhouse account? I was invited to talk about Apple and monopolies, and that was (mostly) a fine conversation. But I have no interest in staying in that place, yet all I see is a Log Out option, no "Cancel Account" option?<p>> @DHH - Jul 3, 2020<p>[0] - <a href="https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1278815203514150913" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1278815203514150913</a>