Manipulating timestamp by changing device date & time

[DanielaH]

Hello,

We use the Now() function (hidden from user) to capture the exact date & time when the user submits their data through the app. Our usecase for apps is to transform paper-based forms into digital ones. One of the advantages was that the timestamp could not be easily manipulated compared to a sheet of paper (where we cannot control whether the added date is accurate).

However, if a user simply changes their device date & time, then PowerApps will use that instead of the 'real' date and time.

Hence my question:

Are all PowerApps date fields tied back to the device date & time?

Does anyone have an idea how to control for the above scenario, e.g. if somebody tried to deliberately alter the date?

[timl]

Hi @DanielaH

What data source are you using?

The CDS, for example, automatically stores the create time/create user/last modified time and last modified user for each record. With SQL Server, you could set the default value of a field to 'CURRENT_TIMESTAMP' to insert the server date and time during record creation. With Excel or non server based data stores, this would be much more difficult.

[DanielaH]

 Hi timl

Thanks for your response.

Currently my data source is a SharePoint list, I pull the data into a collection and work within collections, when the user submits it uses Flow to feed the data back into another SharePoint list. Therefore, I am using the PowerApps date functions.

My question was if there is any date function available that does not use the device / system date and time, but queries the current time differently, perhaps through a specific connector / web service.

This might be overcomplicating things, I just realized that you could simply alter the device time and date to adjust the 'submit time'.

On the other side I could compare this to the SharePoint list item creation date.. good point.