Apple Requirement: Delete Account Button

Apple App Store is not allowing updates to be posted to app store unless we include a "Delete Account" button in TonSafe.

For full disclosure to TonSafe users and by extension Apple users we disclose hereby everything we have done as a "work around" to this problem and the reasons why.

Firstly, it is important to understand, it is technically impossible for us, or indeed anyone else, to delete accounts created on The Open Network (TON) blockchain.

Therefore, when you signed up to use TonSafe, this fact was included in the Terms of Service which you agreed to, so that you had an option not to create a wallet account.

Later, we also introduced this as one of the four agreements you must tick, in addition to the legal Terms of Service, to signal your agreement, before you can continue.

If anyone does not agree with those four points, which evolve around keeping your 24 secret words safe and private, and that an account cannot be deleted, they have an option not to proceed to create an account.

Legal advice that we have sought over this matter, is that we would risk liability for making false claims. We are not willing to deceive our users by placing a Delete Account button which cannot in fact delete an account. We are within our rights to refuse to do so, or to provide this transparent workaround.

Important bug fixes are delayed by Apple Review, after we have already tried extensively to explain to Apple that our understanding of their own terms, allows exemption in cases where account deletion is not possible.

The workaround we have opted for, on the basis of legal advice, satisfied both our moral duty to be honest with TonSafe users and not to mislead them, as competing wallets have done (see below), but also to avoid possible legal action against us.

Apple may have the resources to fight legal cases brought against the company by Apple users, but the company responsible for TonSafe does not have unlimited funds to fight possible legal cases which the advice tells us we may face, even if we were to ignore moral obligations to be truthful (which we would not).

Thus our workaround is to satisfy Apple by including a "Delete Account" button, but to protect ourselves legally by putting this misnomer in inverted commas, and additionally, to pop up an advice window, with further information available by clicking through to this page (tonsafe.net/apple-delete).

Other competing wallets have caved in to these demands. Tonkeeper have a delete account button, but anyone can test it and see that they can log right back into the so-called "deleted account".

Tonhub have done the same while in addition they say that you need to top up with at least 0.1 TON to "delete" an account, and that you can then "delete" the account by sending all the funds to another wallet address. There are several problems with their "work-around" to Apple's pressure:

1. Most wallet users have in fact no balance and would have to purchase a balance.
2. Sending their now minimum 0.1 TON balance to another address, will of course be fully trackable on the blockchain, showing the original address from which you sent it, and this is permanent.
3. The address will in any case not simply be deleted by performing that action, to the best of our knowledge and testing. "Delete accounts" is not a blockchain feature, as explained above.
4. The address given by default, to which Tonhub users should send their TON coins, is owned by Tonhub, who will profit from such "deletions".

As mentioned, the legal advice we sought advises the course of action we have chosen, as a balance between entering a potential endless fight with Apple's App Store to the detriment of iOS users, and doing the wrong thing (morally and legally) to satisfy Apple. Our workaround could even attract the ire of Apple, who we instead hoped would work with us to implement their own policies which allow for exemptions, and given TonSafe's new wallet creation process clearly states that accounts cannot be deleted and is agreed to by anyone creating an account moving forward.

So, what can you do to delete an account you have created? To the best of our knowledge, due to blockchain technology, nothing. If this should ever change, we will naturally remove the legal step at account creation and we will modify the "Delete Account" button to an actual account deletion button.

We will continue to monitor and review this issue, always keeping the best interests of TonSafe users in mind, and always above and beyond legal requirements for your safety.

If you have further questions, you can contact TonSafe Support.