Google Avoids Updating iOS Apps As Apple Adds Privacy Labels – 9to5Mac



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Apple officially rolled out its new app privacy labels to the App Store last month, requiring developers to provide detailed privacy information on data collected from users. Interesting way, Fast company noted that Google hasn’t updated any of its iOS apps since the new app privacy details became mandatory.

Google privacy details

As a backdrop, Apple began asking developers to submit their new privacy information to the App Store in order to update their apps on December 8. The privacy labels for the apps themselves became visible to users on December 14, coinciding with the release of iOS 14.3.

This means that in order to release an update for their apps, developers must also provide this privacy information. The only way around providing privacy details is to not update an app, and that seems to be exactly the strategy Google has adopted.

The report of Fast company notes that the last time Google updated one of its iOS apps was on December 7, a day before Apple required developers to provide privacy details for their apps. This means that when you visit a Google app in the App Store, you just see a message saying “No details provided”.

At the same time, Google has rolled out updates to its apps on Android since December 7, including multiple updates to the same apps in some cases.

By getting updates for all of its existing apps on or before December 7, Google has managed to avoid filling out a privacy label for any of its apps so far. You can check this yourself by launching the App Store app on your iPhone, selecting a Google owned app in the store, and then checking its privacy label on the app listing. As of this writing, you’ll see that the privacy label on every Google app always says “No details provided.” The developer will need to provide privacy information when submitting their next app update. “

What’s important to remember, however, is that Google will need to update its iOS apps at some point. One would hope that this current disruption in updates is due to Google adjusting its privacy practices to avoid the bad publicity of seeing its app privacy labels raising questions among users. It remains to be seen if this is really what is happening here.

So far, various companies have been criticized for their app privacy labels. For example, the new privacy labels have raised awareness among different messaging apps, while Facebook’s app privacy label is long and humorous.

When it comes to the data Google will need to provide, Apple pointed out that there are several important pieces of information developers should remember when preparing app privacy “nutrition labels” for their apps:

  • Developers should identify all possible data collections and uses, although some data will only be collected and used in limited situations.
  • Developer responses should follow the App Store review guidelines and all applicable laws.
  • The developers are responsible for keeping your answers accurate and up to date. If your practices change, update your answers in App Store Connect.

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