Google Responds To Apple App Tracking Transparency With New Rules For Android

Google released a notice today about the future of Android and user data transparency. While not a direct response to Apple's update with iOS 14.5 – at least not explicitly – Google's "pre-announcement" of an upcoming safety section in Google Play should effectively keep the two operating systems in-step on several privacy-centric fronts. The new section in Google Play for Android apps will "help people understand the data an app collects or shares, if that data is secured, and additional details that impact privacy and security."

Suzanne Frey, VP, Product, Android Security and Privacy posted a note this week about how developers and users will be affected by the update to Google Play and Android. Android already has a system in place where apps alert users about what permissions they seek – location data, contacts, personal info, audio, storage files, and camera access. With this update, it'll all be a bit more clear up front, listed in Google Play.

Developers will be asked to share the following items with users in their app listing in Google Play: What type of data is collected and stored, and how the data is used. That should be simple.

• What type of data is collected and stored: Location, Photos & Videos, Audio files, Storage files, Contacts, and Personal Information.

• How the data is used by the app or the developer/group that makes the app. This could also include disclosure of data sharing with 3rd-party sources.

Google Play will also begin listing information as follows in a new Safety Section for each app. New elements will highlight whether:

1. Security practices are in play (data encryption, for example) for user data

2. Google's Families policy is followed with user data

3. The app "needs this data to function or if users have choice in sharing it"

4. The app's safety section "is verified by an independent third-party"

5. Data deletion is an option for the user upon uninstall of said app

Here on May 6, 2021, Google first made their "pre-announcement" of this new policy. In Q3 of 2021, the policy will be "available" for the public and developers to read. In the fourth quarter of 2021, developers will be able to start declaring information in the Google Play Console as outlined above.

In the first quarter of 2022, users in the public will begin to see the new safety section in Google Play. At some point in the second quarter of the year 2022, Google will set a deadline for all new and existing apps to declare the information outlined above.