Handling Sensitive Information in Mobile Apps
Why Sensitive Data in Mobile Apps Demands Special Care
Personally identifiable information, health details, authentication secrets, tokens, exact location, biometrics, contacts, payment credentials, and device identifiers all raise risk. Misuse can harm reputations and lives. List your app’s sensitive fields, then comment with surprising data types you discovered during an inventory.
Collect less, protect more
Map every field to a concrete user benefit, then remove anything that lacks a clear purpose. Replace birthdates with age ranges, and exact coordinates with coarse locations. Minimization reduces exposure and simplifies audits. What fields could your next release safely eliminate without hurting value?
Just-in-time consent and clear purpose
Ask for permissions at the moment of benefit, with honest explanations and reversible choices. No vague prompts. Tie consent language to specific features and outcomes. Share a screenshot-worthy consent message you’re proud of, and we’ll feature the most user-friendly examples.
Deletion, retention, and graceful offboarding
Plan data lifecycles: set short defaults, purge stale data automatically, and implement in-app deletion that truly erases backups and analytics identifiers. Offboarding should feel respectful. How fast can your system forget a user when they ask? Challenge yourself and tell us your target.
Secure Storage on Device
Use iOS Keychain with Secure Enclave and Android Keystore with StrongBox for asymmetric keys. Encrypt sensitive blobs with AES‑GCM, bind to biometrics where appropriate, and rotate keys gracefully. What helped you balance convenience with real protection? Share your configuration tips.
Secure Storage on Device
Never stash tokens in shared preferences, plist files, or SQLite without encryption. Don’t write secrets to logs, backups, or external storage. Audit third-party SDK caches. If you’ve uncovered a sneaky storage leak, describe the fix so others can avoid the same trap.
Secure Transmission and Backend Integration
Enforce TLS 1.2+ with strong ciphers, verify hostnames, and implement certificate or public key pinning to defeat man-in-the-middle attacks. Rotate pins without bricking builds. If you’ve shipped a safe pinning rollout, share your playbook and lessons learned.
Authentication, Authorization, and Biometrics
Use platform APIs for Face ID, Touch ID, or Android Biometrics, never rolling your own. Provide PIN fallbacks and rate limits. Avoid storing biometric templates; let hardware handle it. Tell us how you tuned prompts to feel respectful yet firm.
Authentication, Authorization, and Biometrics
Constrain APIs and UI by role, scope, and context. Show only what the user needs for the task at hand. Sensitive endpoints demand extra checks. Have you simplified permissions recently? Describe your before-and-after to inspire other teams.
