This is what Google’s app privacy labels will look like
Apple has been on a bit of a privacy rampage and one of the changes they have introduced is to its App Store. This comes in the form of privacy “nutrition” labels that shows users what kind of permissions an app would ask for and what kind of hardware it could access, like your microphone or cameras.
Google previously stated that they would be introducing something similar to the Play Store, and in a new blog post, the company has shown off what those labels could look like. With these labels, developers can let users know what kind of data is being collected on them, whether or not it’s encrypted, and if it can be deleted.
Users can also dive further into these details and find out whether or not some of the permissions requested can be disabled and if an app can still function without it, thus giving them a bit more flexibility when it comes to protecting their privacy. Google notes that the current design that they’ve shown off could be subject to change, but this is what they’ve got so far. According to Google:
“Ultimately, all Google Play store apps will be required to share information in the safety section. We want to give developers plenty of time to adapt to these changes, so we’re sharing more information about the data type definitions, user journey, and policy requirements of this new feature.”
Developers who want to hop on board this privacy train can do so starting in October later this year, although Google has also put a cutoff date for April 2022 in which all apps are required to take part in this program.
Source: Google