On Wednesday Google announced additional details about the upcoming safety section, which will provide developers a simple way to showcase their app’s overall safety on Google Play, give users deeper insight into their privacy and security practices, and explain to users the data their app might collect and why.
Google is preparing for Google Play’s new safety section
Google said it wants to give developers plenty of time to adapt to these changes, hence sharing more information about the data type definitions, user journey, and policy requirements of this new feature.
Users will see the new summary in an app’s store listing page, that will share the developer’s explanation of what data an app collects or shares and highlight safety details, such as whether the app has security practices, like data encryption, follows Google’s Families policy, and has been independently validated against a global security standard.
Users can tap into the summary to see details like what type of data is collected and shared, such as location, contacts, personal information (e.g., name, email address), financial information, how the data is used, such as for app functionality, personalization, and whether data collection is optional or required in order to use an app.
Changes to policy to support the safety section
Google said that the new user data policies are designed to provide more user transparency and to help people make informed choices about how their data is collected, protected, and used.
The change also means that all developers will now be obliged to provide a privacy policy — not only apps that collect personal and sensitive user data. Developers are responsible for providing accurate and complete information in their safety section, including data used by the app’s third-party libraries or SDKs, Google wrote in a blog post.
This is how much time developers are left with to prepare for the changes:
Starting in October, developers will be able to submit information in the Google Play Console for review.
“We encourage you to start early in case you have questions along the way. The new safety section will launch for apps in Google Play in Q1 2022,” said Suzanne Frey, Vice President of Product, Android Security and Privacy.
Google also added that they know some developers will need more time to assess their apps and coordinate with multiple teams. So, they will have until April 2022 before their apps must have this section approved. Without an approved section, a developer’s new app submission or app update may be rejected, Google wrote in a blog post.