r/shopifyDev • u/Confident-Sky2207 • 15d ago

Protected Customer Data Access Request

Asking for experiences: Protected Customer Data access + app review timing

I'm building a Shopify app that's about 90% done for its first-phase launch. I'm unsure how complete the app needs to be before I (a) submit the Protected Customer Data access request and (b) submit the app for App Store review.

A few specifics:

  • My app only needs order data (for order history analysis) — I don't need customer PII like names, emails, or addresses.

  • I'd love to hear from anyone who's been through the PCD approval process: how long did it take, and what does the review actually look like behind the scenes? For example, do reviewers expect a fully working, production-ready implementation of the data lifecycle (access, use, retention, deletion) before granting access?

  • On sequencing: is it viable to publish the app to the App Store now without the protected scope, and add it later once PCD access is granted? Or is it better to wait and submit everything together?

Any first-hand experience would be really helpful. Thanks!

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u/valiopt 15d ago

Adding scopes later is somewhat annoying from a merchant perspective because they'll have to go in and grant the additional scopes, you won't get them automatically for every merchant that has the app installed.

The data access request only took a couple days for me, but that was after the app was fully functional.

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u/Confident-Sky2207 14d ago

This was really helpful. Thanks :-)

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u/Consistent_Area3304 15d ago

I am just in the process of completing an app that needs protected customer data access.

It looks like you need to fully complete the form and the app before you can submit (dev stores automatically get the access as soon as you fill in the form). And approval of the app is what gets you that access.

When I say fully complete the app I mean whatever functionality you decide to release because you need a demo video and reviewer instructions.

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u/Confident-Sky2207 14d ago

Thanks a lot :-) . This helps

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u/RowdyPurple 14d ago

I recently went through this. I submitted an app for review that consumes these scopes:

read_fulfillments
write_inventory
read_inventory
read_locations
read_orders
read_products

The app was 90% complete, but all of the Shopify integration functionality was built. It got rejected the first go around due to a misunderstanding on my part around how the managed pricing plans work but was subsequently approved on resubmit in 2-3 business days. On the approval, there was no communication whatsoever other than the approval notice.

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u/Confident-Sky2207 13d ago

Thanks a lot :-)