App Developers Offered More Time Frame To Fill Play Store’s Data Safety Section

A “Data safety” feature has been added to each app in the Play Store since May. However, Google Play is now delaying the rollout until later in the year, despite the fact that it helps both developers and users.  

For instance, this area would allow developers to explain what user data apps collect, share (e.g. for personalization, analytics, or advertising), and how it’s used (e.g. for photos, videos, audio files, or storage files).  

Using Google Play’s data safety section, you may help consumers understand what user data your app collects or distributes, and exhibit your app’s most important privacy and security standards. This helps users make better decisions about which programmes to download.  

When it comes to data encryption, developers can specify whether or not consumers can opt out or seek to erase it afterwards. Third-party libraries and SDKs that are utilised in apps can also collect data.

Google says that it asks for “new and different information that you may not have utilised previously,” whereas Apple has made a similar push in recent years.    

As of October, Google’s Play Console began allowing developers to enter this data. This month was originally set aside for the launch of the company’s data safety section on the Play Store. By April, everyone was supposed to have turned in their data and had it approved.

Additional enforcement actions may be taken after July 20, 2022, including the removal of your app’s Google Play store listing. The launch of Google Play’s data safety section has been pushed back until “late April,” the firm announced today.

In the meantime, developers have until July 20 to “declare how they acquire and handle user data for the apps they publish” for new app submissions and updates or risk losing the right to publish. As a result, Play Store submissions will be denied if “unresolved issues” still exist.