The chat history deletability in a third-party chatgpt apk depends on data storage mechanism and technical implementation of the individual version. Based on XDA Developers’ test data in 2023, 72% of third-party APKs (e.g., v1.7.0) allow manual deletion of local chat histories (the storage path is usually /data/data/[package name]/databases). However, 35% of the versions carry data residue risk – even when delete operation is conducted, 12% of the pieces of conversation are retained in the cache directory in the shape of temporary files (occupying an average space of 4.2MB per thousand records). For example, the actual test by user @PrivacyGuard shows that after deleting 100 conversations on an Android 12 phone, 9 contents which weren’t fully deleted can still be accessed with the assistance of the data recovery tool.
The technical implementation strategy centers on deletion completeness. Encrypted Apks held within the SQLite database (such as in the GitHub project Secure-ChatGPT v2.1), when deleted, trigger the AES-256 key rotation mechanism, which has the ability to reduce the chances of the data being recovered from 23% of the regular version to 0.8%. But for APKs that are plain text stored (like v1.5.3), even when the phone is formatted, 9% of the chat history still remains in the physical block of the eMMC flash memory chip (which can only be fully wiped using professional equipment like JTAG).
Safety hazards must be watchful. Virustotal scans reveal that 28% of chatgpt APKs contain malicious logic in the deletion functionality – for example, a version titled “ChatGPT_Ultra.apk” will upload data to a third-party server (upload 18KB/s) when the user starts the deletion process. This causes a 4.7-fold boost in the risk of privacy leakage. The 2023 CheckPoint report cites that in approximately 15% of data breaches, such “fake deletion” vulnerabilities are responsible.
Recommendations for compliance operations:
Delete effect check: With the use of pm clear [package name] via Android Debug Bridge (ADB), 99.6% of application data can be cleared (test devices: Pixel 6, Android 13).
Encrypted storage solutions: Ensure the use of open-source initiatives (such as ChatGPT-Encrypted v3.0), utilizing FBE (File-level encryption) technology. The unrecoverability rate of data when it is deleted is up to 99.3%.
Physical-level erase: For data of a sensitive type, it’s recommended to activate the device “Secure Wipe” capability (e.g., Samsung Knox’s Secure Wipe), and double the cost of data recovery to 1200/GB with three overwrites (DoD 5220.22-M standard) (50/GB for normal recovery).
Legal and technical constraints: According to Article 17 of the EU GDPR, users have the right to request data controllers to delete their personal data entirely. However, in third-party chatgpt APKs, only 19% of the versions adhere to the rule – for example, version v2.2.0 will synchronously delete all cloud backups within 72 hours of a delete request (with a 92% success rate), whereas the majority of free APKs do not have this feature.
In the future, Android 14’s “Data Security Center” will force apps to provide visual data deletion interfaces. It is expected that the data retention rate of compliant APKs can be reduced below 2% in 2024. However, the physical nature of storage chips in devices (such as NAND flash memory’s wear balancing mechanism) will still result in 0.03% of data pieces being irremovable.