Google is lifting the veil of mystery surrounding the Play Store’s upcoming safety section. And we can’t be more grateful. They have detailed that Android apps in the Google Play Store will have to share their privacy and security policies in an effort to create more transparency. Furthermore, they have also imposed strict deadlines for when these changes must reflect.
Once implemented, Android users can visit the security section in any app’s Google Play listing, and you will see the security and privacy policies that govern your data. You will be able to clearly see if the app encrypts data, what type of information the app collects, and more impressively, whether or not the security has been tested against worldwide standards.
There will also be a summary feature that you can tap for more details. This will show you what type of data has been collected and how it’s being used. This is one way Google gives developers a chance to explain why they’re asking for your information.
Another inclusion in the new safety section is that all Play Store apps will require a privacy policy. Whereas in the past, only apps that collected sensitive data were required to have such a policy.
Google has announced that Android developers can start sharing security and privacy policies to the security section from October 2021. We will only be seeing the new area in the Play Store in the first quarter of 2022. And from April 2022, the app developers will have to declare this information.
This is definitely a push in the right direction. The goal has been that the new safety area should help users make informed decisions on the apps they decide to use. The security and privacy policies should be transparent, and users should know what data is being used and why.
This section will also make it possible to use only apps that respect your privacy and security, which hopefully results in developers working harder to ensure their apps achieve this. Apps that don’t encrypt your data or share it a little too freely open you up to malicious attacks. We hope this will create a baseline level of trust that wasn’t always present in Android apps.
