One of the biggest changes we’ve seen to the Apple App Store is the introduction of “nutrition” labels. These are basically labels that add a layer of transparency to the App Store to let users know what kind of data an app is accessing on your device, so if you’re uncomfortable with it, you can avoid downloading it.It looks like Google has decided that they will now do the same for its Android apps on the Play Store. The company has announced that they will soon be adding privacy labels to apps on the Play Store.
According to Google, “Similar to app details like screenshots and descriptions, developers are responsible for the information disclosed in their section. Google Play will introduce a policy that requires developers to provide accurate information. If we find that a developer has misrepresented the data they’ve provided and is in violation of the policy, we will require the developer to fix it.”
The company also notes that apps that don’t comply will be subject to “policy enforcement”. Google has also stated that they will be doing the same to their own apps on the Play Store, which is kind of a funny turnaround given that they took quite a while to comply with Apple’s App Store labels. Either way, it’s still a good thing for users at the end of the day, so it’s something that Android users can look forward to in the near future.
Filed in . Read more about Android, Apps, Google and Privacy. Source: android-developers.googleblog