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Comment by codetrotter | Hacker News Reader

For the most part a very good thing.

Wonder what that means for third-party HN client apps though, since HN accounts cannot be deleted.

It only applies to apps that let you create an account from within the app, so third-party client apps like this could just not handle the account signup. (I think they already tend not to handle it.)

My apps for HN do allow account creation. I guess I will have to wait for some developers to complain to Apple to figure out how to handle third party clients.

From the article: "...all apps that allow for account creation..."

Not sure which reply to post this under, so I'll just reply under GP - it took me about 3 minutes to locate a popular HN client which specifically advertises account creation in the overview. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/octal/id1308885491

(Android user, can't test it)

I am the developer of HACK which is a HN client for iOS, MacOS and Android and I support account creation too:

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/hack-for-hacker-news-developer...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pranapps.h...

I have no idea what happens to third party apps as Apple doesn't specify.

From the perspective of Apple and their users, does it really matter whether the backend an app relies on is owned by the developers of said app or not? The experience around and ramifications of account creation and deletion are the same regardless. Which obviously can be a pain for third-party devs.

Great point! It's definitely a step in the right direction, but my immediate thought was "what about all the sites that don't actually delete anything?"

Hopefully apple makes a more user-friendly announcement about this that will introduce people of the concept of data retention and how "deleting" an account isn't really deleting anything.

> my immediate thought was "what about all the sites that don't actually delete anything?"

Thats the whole point :) Apple is saying they need to or no iphone app.

My point was that not all “delete account” buttons are created equal. Some sites just have an “is_deleted” column in their user table, and will continue to use your data after you “delete” your account. I don’t think apple has any way to check for this, but hopefully they at least touch on this topic in their announcement of the new requirement to the non-developer public.

It doesn’t actually say the account must be deleted. It says: “…must also allow users to INITIATE deletion of their account”

Capitals mine. So I can allow the initiation of deletion but never actually completely delete the account… and my app complies.

From the message:

> ...all apps that allow for account creation must also allow users to initiate deletion...

So any third-party client that allows creating an HN account would need to stop. (Are there any?)

Let's hope it's a wake-up call to HN admins that they need to rescind this unjustifiable and user-hostile policy.

It's illegal under GDPR and european data protection rights anyway. You have a right to have your account and data deleted if there aren't any important reasons not to (like finance stuff).

I hope third-party clients are not forced to, because making the delete API private would be a great opportunity to indirectly ban them.

Edit: it's only for apps that allow account creation. If you expose the API for account management to third-parties, it would make sense to include account deletion.

Offer a submit form that sends it over to the HN admin email address (that I forget.)

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