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Google cannot close your GPay account anymore

7 points by trustingtrust ↗ HN
Google has removed the option to close your GPay account in India on iOS devices. Customer support confirmed that you cannot delete a GPay account anymore. All your transaction history cannot be wiped from Google services which was possible previously. The only way to do that is delete your entire Google account.

8 comments

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jytechdevops
who cares? how often do you need to close your gpay account? maybe like a once in a decade or few years kind of thing. just get a new credit card and move on. not everything needs to be an outrage.
trustingtrust
They did allow it previously. They no longer do. I wanted to close it because I don’t want people to find me on GPay and make payments or ask to. It’s become inconvenient as I use a different UPI method. Just because a few don’t care doesn’t mean everyone else shouldn’t either. And any privacy policy must include as a good practice to be able to delete the account as well.
verdverm
Could there be a law affecting this?

Even in the US, while you may be able to delete a financial account, the company is required to keep the records for a number of years (7 maybe?)

trustingtrust
I thought so too. I was able to delete a Square Cash account a few years ago when I was in US and they gave the same explanation that we are required by law to maintain records for some time. However, they did delete my account.

I do not believe any such law exists in India for UPI accounts. I do believe however that Google has chosen not to allow deletion of GPay accounts for some reason other than the law.

Also GPay requires location access to work at all. So its not just payment information, it is location information along with payment information.

verdverm
How do you expect a company to fight fraud without knowing where a transaction happens?

Seems like you have a pet theory and don't want to consider others

https://www.khaitanco.com/sites/default/files/2022-01/Data%2...

trustingtrust
I am not saying they shouldn't retain data. I am saying they should allow me to delete the account which they did until some time ago. I checked the laws linked and it doesn't say anywhere you can't delete the account. So for example if I was to delete my account my contacts don't see me on GPay anymore. If google keeps the data of both location and payments on their servers for whatever time it's required (Square did the same) then it's fine as laws required that. But until they don't allow me to delete the account the contacts keep seeing me as active on the app. This is not about privacy of payments it's about not allowing to delete the account which seems a generalised privacy problem of not allowing deletion of accounts.
verdverm
> But until they don't allow me to delete the account the contacts keep seeing me as active on the app.

So your question is not exactly accurate. Are you expecting Google to reach into other people's accounts or other apps to delete your contact info? If I write your email in a keep note, should they delete my recording of that information?

Has Google tied pay to your general Google account, such that they are not separately managed? i.e. you have to delete your Google account, since there is only one anymore

dotcoma
Just do it — delete your Google account, I mean!