Although it was far from the most important announcement of WWDC 2021, at that time, Apple announced a new rule for iOS that with reasonable adjustment time, application developers should take into account. A change that’s a success from a user perspective, but it certainly didn’t sit well with a number of services, which is why we’ve gotten to this point, a little over a year after the announcement, with many iOS homework apps still to be done.

Apple’s demand for developers is nothing more than to offer users the ability to remove your accounts from the Service directly from the iOS app. For example, a Facebook user should be able to delete their account from the Meta social network without having to leave the application. These are the terms that Apple imposes on developers:

• The option to delete your account should be easy to find in the app.
• If your app offers Apple Sign In, you’ll need to use the Apple Sign In REST API to remove user tokens when you delete an account.
• It is not enough to simply offer the option to temporarily deactivate the account. People should be able to delete their account along with their personal information.
• Apps in highly regulated industries may provide additional customer support streams to confirm and facilitate the account deletion process.
• Comply with applicable legal requirements for the storage and retention of user account information and for managing account deletion. This includes compliance with local laws in different countries or regions. As always, consult your legal counsel.

It seems to me the third point is particularly noteworthy, and deactivating an account is not the same as deleting it, as in the first case the user account and subsequently all its data will be maintained by the company providing the service. Moreover, access to this feature must be simple, meaning that Apple will not accept that you have to wade through an ocean of menus to reach this feature. Ideally, it should have the same accessibility as the account creation and login options.

Since the announcement took place at WWDC 2021, Apple gave iOS app developers a little over half a year and set a deadline. on January 31, 2022. However, we can understand that due to the delay on the part of the developers decided to extend the deadline until June 30i.e. today. And unlike what happened with the first deadline, this time it looks like there will be no new extension.

And what will happen from today? Apple has not yet said what will happen to apps that do not comply with the regulations. However, the widespread speculation is that future updates will be blocked of these applications or even may have been removed from the store iOS apps, at least until they include this feature.

More information: Apple