Shopify’s New Protected Customer Data Rules: What App Developers Need to Change

As of 10 December 2025, Shopify enforces protected customer data policies for web pixels. Apps without approved scopes now receive null values for personally identifiable information (PII) fields. This affects storefront, checkout, and customer account surfaces.

If you build Shopify apps that use web pixels to collect customer data, you need to act now. Here’s what changed and what you need to do.

What Changed on 10 December 2025

Shopify now gates access to customer PII in web pixel payloads. Five protected scopes control access to this data:

• read_customer_name
• read_customer_email
• read_customer_phone
• read_customer_address
• read_customer_personal_data

Without approval for these scopes, your app receives null values instead of actual customer data. This applies across all surfaces: storefront events, checkout tracking, and customer account pages.

The change was announced in the Shopify Developer Changelog and rolled out as part of the Winter ’26 Edition.

Why Shopify Made This Change

Privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA continue to tighten. Shopify is aligning with the broader industry shift toward consent-based data collection.

This protects merchants from liability. It also gives customers more control over their personal information. Apps that genuinely need customer data can still access it—they just need to prove their use case first.

What Developers Need to Do

1. Check If Your App Actually Needs Protected Data

Audit which customer fields your app uses. Many analytics implementations don’t need full PII. If you’re tracking events without needing names or email addresses, you may not need to request protected scopes at all.

Only request scopes you genuinely require. Shopify reviews each request, and asking for unnecessary access slows down approval.

2. Request Scope Approval

Submit your app for review through the Shopify Partner Dashboard. Provide clear justification for each scope you’re requesting. Explain what data you collect, why you need it, and how you protect it.

Approval timelines vary depending on your use case complexity. Plan ahead if you have upcoming releases.

3. Update Code to Handle Null Values

Even if you’re requesting approval, update your implementation to handle null responses gracefully. Don’t let null values break your analytics pipelines or event tracking.

Check for null before accessing customer fields. Log when expected data is missing so you can debug issues. Make sure your app continues functioning even without PII.

4. Test Across All Surfaces

Test your pixel events on storefronts, during checkout, and on customer account pages. Verify analytics still function correctly with null values where applicable. Check both approved and unapproved states to ensure graceful degradation.

What This Means for Merchants

If you’re a merchant rather than a developer, this change still affects you. Third-party apps may lose access to customer data they previously collected. Some tracking pixels may stop working as expected.

Check with your app developers about their compliance status. Review which apps have access to customer data in your Shopify admin. If an app stops sending expected data to your analytics platforms, this enforcement may be the cause.

For apps already approved for protected customer data scopes, no action is required. Existing approvals carry forward, and your integrations will continue working normally.

Full technical details are available in the Shopify Web Pixels API documentation.

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