Google has announced a policy update for Google Play to improve privacy and user security.

Google has provided more details regarding their upcoming Safety section that it plans to add to Google Play in the first quarter of 2022. All Google Play app developers must provide details of their privacy and security practices by April next year.

In the new Safety section, developers will be able to provide information about the security practices implemented in their applications (for example, data encryption), whether an app follows Google Play policies and whether it has been independently audited against global security standards.

Users will be able to access the section from any application on Google Play to learn more about what type of data the application collects and transmits, how this data is used and whether they can opt out of data collection practices.

All application developers are required to provide their privacy policies, regardless of whether their application collects personal/sensitive data or not. Developers must provide accurate and complete information in the safety section, including data used by third-party libraries or SDKs.

Developers can start submitting the required information in the Google Play Console for review in October 2021, and a safety section will appear on Google Play in early 2022. In general, developers must ensure that their apps support this section by April 2022, otherwise requests for new apps and update on Google Play will be rejected.

Source: securitylab.ru