"Delete my account"?

SkrOYC · 07-11-2022 06:02 AM

Today I noticed that a new option is inside the Android App for our users "Delete my account"

Can I ask why and when this was deployed?

@lizlynch Can you tag someone related to this?

Steve

Where do you see this? I'm not seeing it. Screenshot?

SkrOYC

Weird enough, I've seen it on two ways:

1.

2.

The "Delete my account" takes you to the AppSheet page to delete it.

Steve

I'm guessing this is a new feature rolling out, and I haven't gotten it yet.

Checking the release notes, there it is!

July 8, 2022 - Google Cloud Community

SkrOYC

Thanks for the link! I searched and didn't find anything related to it. I forgot the release notes

Jonathon

Is there any way to hide this option? I'm all for allowing users to delete their PII/accounts, but it doesn't function that way when using domain authentication and also isn't particularly relevant to corporate userbase where the account&data could be considered company property.

Sirfyaad

Swoopy

I almost accidentally tapped this when I was about to clear sync queues. It's another new horrible feature.

isdal

Hi folks,

This capability was rolled out to meet the new requirements for the Apple AppStore, it is required and part of the app review process so we won't be able to offer an option to hide it: https://developer.apple.com/support/offering-account-deletion-in-your-app/

There are multiple confirmation screens, including extra confirmation dialogs for users who have created apps. We designed the UI flow to minimize the risk of accidental deletion.

// Tomas

Swoopy

Thanks for info but why Android?

isdal

We generally try to treat Android and iOS the same. We could branch the behavior but in this case we do not. Generally we try to avoid that since each time we special case something it makes the system more brittle with more corner cases to watch out for.

Swoopy

From my point of view, it'd be just something simple as

IF iOS then show "Delete my account" otherwise hide it.

SkrOYC

I don't think the debate should be how the app is on iOS vs Android. I'm fine and even support that both should be exactly the same. So if iOS is asking certain things the Android version should also comply in order to give users consistency.

The main problem is that we shouldn't be on this on either version because we just need to have auth providers for our users, they shoulnd't have any "AppSheet account" in the process

Jonathon

It is necessary for AppSheet to have their own accounts - one reason is for logging app usage for billing purposes, for the usage monitor / audit log, etc.

But appsheets users model isn't exposed to app creators in a usable way and, as a result, the user data is fragmented.

SkrOYC

I mean why our users have to be on the "people with accounts" category and not just us as creators. As creators it makes sense since we gave part of our trust to AppSheet but our users doesn't need to care about who AppSheet actually is, AppSheet should just take log in stats, not give them an "account".

I think that we need more transparency here and a way better explanation because yours @isdal gave us more questions than answers. Now I'm grateful you gave us one, it's apreciated

SkrOYC

I think you are passing us the impact of a desition that was not us.

Can you tell us what is an account in the AppSheet world? Does our users need to have an account at the same level as AppSheet creators from the AppSheet POV? Is this related to the fact that our users have to give access to more than just a simple auth to AppSheet when they use our apps for the first time?

Thanks

isdal

Exactly, we need to store some data about the user for the system to function. We request fewer permissions than for an App Creator but still some. The requirement is that the user can delete data that we have stored and that is through the delete account flow.

Independently of the App Store requirement I think it is reasonable for users to be able to delete their data in a straight forward way.

Jonathon

This option doesn't seem very well thought out beyond checking the box for the iOS app store.

Most applications have some form of users table independent of AppSheets user system, which will remain if the user deletes their account.
In the case of domain authentication, a user record will likely exist in the authentication provider (e.g. Cognito).

How does the delete account option address these issues?

---------

I manually delete user accounts and this takes time. Does account deletion need to be immediate and automatic?

No. If your process for account deletion is manual or otherwise takes time to complete, this is acceptable. Inform the user how long it will take to delete the account and provide a confirmation when the deletion has been completed. Ensure the time taken to delete accounts complies with local laws where your app is available.

If an option needs to be provided for app store compliance, a process where users can request deletion to the app creator seems more appropriate for my userbase.

SkrOYC

300% with you on all of your words, you explained it better than I would've done it.

That's what I mean about with "what is an 'account'". I don't get it. My users table will be there even if my users delete their relation with AppSheet. I don't get why this option should be there. I don't get why there is something considered an "account" if the only thing I need is check their identity via auth. I wouldn't consider that an account.

Now, to be honest, this seems to be part of the privacy concerns I have about Google, I think that they are using this as another oportunity to collect data from creators+users

Ratatosk

This is not good for work and office use. Users should not be able to delete any account without permission from administrator.

isdal

Enterprise plans disable account deletion for that exact reason, in those cases the message will say "Please contact your corporate administrator...". The expectation in those cases is that the business controls the account lifecycle

Jonathon

This would be better if it was an in-app modal with localization / instructions similar to the 'Require user consent' dialogs.

Even better, give us the toggle so we can turn it on/off on a per-app basis. Not every app is published in the iOS app store, and every app doesn't need the delete account option in an ecosystem of several apps + app launcher.

Ratatosk

Thank you for the reply. 🙂

What happens if the app is open to all within our work domain and they delete? Can they still access the app when logging on again?

While writing I noticed that the menu is now hidden. Thank you! An improvement!

SkrOYC

If you check my screenshots, I actually see both behaviors. One hidden and the other one in the drawer

DarenJanes

Thinking this through.... It seems like they just added a pointer in the Mobile app platforms to delete your appsheet.com account. But is that any different than a user navigating to appsheet.com and deleting their account from there? I don't think so, but I could do without it on the mobile app as well. I hope it at least prompts for Google Authentication credentials again. Of course anyone sharing the Appsheet Creator Account and Password will not sleep any better with this move.

SkrOYC

@DarenJanes wrote:
Of course anyone sharing the Appsheet Creator Account and Password will not sleep any better with this move.

Sure, I don't see why anyone would do that.

To not pay the bill?

Ratatosk

With the varying levels of incompetence in a workplace this will surely happen to someone sooner or later.