- Google will include privacy features in the Google Play store app listings, following a similar move by Apple that was completed months ago and that Google itself hardly respected as an app developer.
- Changes will be available by next year’s second quarter. The preliminary announcement is meant to grant developers plenty of time to comply.
- According to the newly available information, the changes aim to let the developers earn the user’s trust rather than to prevent inappropriate or intrusive data collection.
Apple’s App Store introduced privacy labels for its apps a few months ago. Google is trying to keep up with the competition in its own Google Play store. We know because the world’s dominant search engine had a preliminary announcement about those plans.
A new section (labeled as “safety”) will roll out next year. The new paradigm will require developers to let users know what are the kinds of data that their apps collect, how they store it, and how they use it.
Take personal information, for instance. The team behind each app will need to make it known what kind of said personal information they are collecting (email, the user’s location, media files, contacts, etc).
But they also have to clarify why the app needs such information by justifying its use (for example, maybe it enhances the app’s functionality or its customized features).
Pandering to developers, not users
The new policy doesn’t need to be as heavy as it sounds for all developers. Some of them are already practicing privacy policies tailored to the current popular taste. Those developing teams will be able to emphasize that in their listings, so it can even become a selling point for them.
New elements in the listings will detail if any given app enhances security by, say, encryption or any other means, according to Google. Google’s child protection policies, grouped under the label “Families policy” are not as widely known as they should be, but they do exist and the new listings will also show if an app sticks to those policies.
Other important bits of information will be if the app’s security has been audited, verified, or certified by a third party if the app allows its users to choose in the data sharing and if the developers delete user data once a user uninstalls the app.
Google’s new move is, of course, inspired by Apple’s to say the least. But it’s not exactly the very same thing as meaningful differences can be seen in each respective policy. Apple’s priority is in the types of data being collected for tracking as well as what or how it’s linked to the end-user.
Google’s additions suggest that the priority is to let you know if you can trust how the data is being collected and handled. This end is met by the developer’s showcase of their data security practices, among other things. The developer also has a chance to explain and justify why is it that such data is critical (beneficial, at least) for the app’s performance and the benefits it reports to end-users.
Independent verification is another interesting feature in Google’s additions. If and when the auditing is done by trusted third parties, they could go a long way in persuading users that the data policies quoted in the listings are indeed authentic. In contrast, Apple’s privacy labels were very criticized in the early days for providing inaccurate information.
Not until next year’s second quarter
These new features in Google Play listings won’t come online until next year’s second quarter. So why is Google making an announcement so far ahead of the due date? Well, according to the company, it wants to allow developers plenty of time to be ready.
So we finally have Google moving forward on app privacy. Does it look like a bit of cosmic irony? You bet.
Google develops apps sold in the iOS store, of course. And they have the longest holdouts in issuing privacy labels for the Apple Store. In fact, the company has held compliance with that for so long that some of its apps are downright off with App Store policies.
Some of them did not comply for months after the deadline. This brought about a lot of mockery from the specialized press and privacy enthusiasts as some of them have been pointing out for a long time the “insane” amount of data that, say, Google Chrome collects.
And the thing is that this move is not really about pushing privacy at all. It rather looks like a brand new space for app developers to explain themselves to their users so that they can show that they can be trusted with the data they collect. But nothing in the new policies supports the idea that apps should not be collecting data intrusively in the first place.
So how will Google’s consumers react to all this? Well, we will have to see. Apple has made the case that it cares about user privacy by including features that improve a user’s control over its own data. That is a powerful statement whether you love or hate the digital fruit company.
Google’s credibility vis a vis user privacy is questionable, to say the least. While it’s never been under the media siege that Facebook had for blatantly selling out its customers, Google’s business model is all about analyzing every user’s data so that it can offer them the most effective publicity possible.
If you add to that that the new policies will not prevent data collection but rather offer a platform for justifying it, chances are that the multicolor company will face a good deal of skepticism, even mockery. But it was a necessary step in the right direction, however dubious it can seem to the general public.
