Google Play just copied the App Store's top new feature

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Google Play just copied the App Store'south top new feature

(Image credit: LightRocket / Getty)

Hey, this sounds familiar: Google plans to display privacy information about every app in the Google Play store, but as Apple now does in its own App Store.

The "upcoming condom section in Google Play volition help people understand the data an app collects or shares, if that information is secured, and boosted details that impact privacy and security," wrote Suzanne Frey, a Google vice president in charge of Android security and privacy, in a blog post.

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To be fair, Google Play listed the permissions each app had long earlier Apple started requiring privacy data after the release of iOS 14. But over the years, the permissions scorecard has get less prominent on the standard Google Play page, and now you have to gyre to the bottom of an app's listing to find it.

It's not similar this new privacy policy is going to happen tomorrow, either. The May 6 weblog post is just a "pre-announcement" meant to give a heads-up to Android developers that this new policy is on the way. Nosotros'd expect to hear more than about information technology during Google's developer conference later on this calendar month.

The policy requirements themselves will come one-time this summertime, according to a cute graphic on the blog post. The privacy section may announced in Google Play in the wintertime of 2022.

All new and existing apps volition take to declare their privacy data in by "Q2 '22." That's the leap of 2022 to non-business organization-minded humans, or almost a yr from at present.

(Paradigm credit: Google)

Even so, Frey lays out some pretty ambitious goals in her web log post. Similar Apple, Google volition require apps to evidence "what type of data is collected and stored" and "how the data is used," merely some of the other requirements go beyond what Apple makes its developers declare.

"In addition to the data an app collects or shares," she writes, "we're introducing new elements to highlight whether:

• "The app has security practices, like data encryption"
• "The app follows our Families policy"
• "The app needs this information to function or if users have option in sharing it"
• "The app'due south prophylactic section is verified by an contained tertiary-party"
• "The app enables users to asking data deletion, if they decide to uninstall"

The downside is that all of this will be cocky-declared by the app developers, so in that location's room to exaggerate any positives or downplay negative privacy aspects — at to the lowest degree until the app makers go caught. And it's non clear what happens afterward that.

Frey warns that "Google Play will introduce a policy that requires developers to provide accurate information" — which make usa wonder why at that place'south no such policy in existence already.

"If we find that a developer has misrepresented the data they've provided and is in violation of the policy, we will require the developer to set up it," she adds. "Apps that don't become compliant will exist bailiwick to policy enforcement."

We can't wait to see what kind of teeth this new Google tell-the-truth policy enforcement really has.

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Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom's Guide focused on security and privacy. He has also been a dishwasher, fry melt, long-haul driver, code monkey and video editor. He's been rooting around in the information-security infinite for more than fifteen years at FoxNews.com, SecurityNewsDaily, TechNewsDaily and Tom's Guide, has presented talks at the ShmooCon, DerbyCon and BSides Las Vegas hacker conferences, shown up in random TV news spots and even moderated a panel discussion at the CEDIA home-technology conference. You can follow his rants on Twitter at @snd_wagenseil.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/google-play-app-privacy-scorecard

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