1. A data protection method for software applications on a mobile electronic device, the device having storage for allocation to respective software applications for data storage, including: creating and storing a list of selected software applications operating on the mobile electronic device; notifying the selected software applications of an impending storage cleaning operation; and determining, for each selected software application receiving the notification, if any storage allocated thereto is to be released for cleaning during the impending storage cleaning operation and if so releasing the storage for cleaning.