Google Play policy update to further strengthen privacy and security | July 2021

We have been working hard to make the Google Play experience safer and more trustworthy, both for developers and users. Today we brought a new policy update to further strengthen user control, privacy and security.

allows users to enjoy greater transparency in data privacy and security

In addition to the new policies related to the upcoming security section in Google Play, we also shared other information such as data definitions. Please read this article to learn more:

Improve advertising privacy and security

For a long time, we have been providing users with practical advertising ID control rights, such as resetting the identifier at any time, or choosing not to allow the identifier to be used for advertising personalization. This year, we will add additional control options.

As we announced to developers on June 2, we will make technical changes at the end of 2021 as part of the Google Play service update. When users opt out of interest-based advertising or advertising personalization features, their advertising ID will be deleted and replaced by a string of 0s. As a reminder, this Google Play service change will be carried out in phases. Starting from the end of 2021, this change will affect applications on Android 12 devices and will be expanded to all applications on devices that support Google Play in early 2022. In addition, applications that upgrade the target API level to Android 12 will need to declare a new Google Play service permission in the manifest file to use the advertising ID.

We will also test a new feature to notify developers and advertising/analysis service providers of user deactivation settings to help developers implement user choices and add it to the policy restrictions on the use of advertising ID . When the user deletes their advertising ID, the developer will receive a notification so that the advertising ID that is no longer used can be deleted in time.

In addition, we prohibit the permanent device identifier with personal and sensitive user data or resettable device identifiers. When the user resets the device identifier or uninstalls the application, this policy adds additional privacy protection.

Finally, we provide a developer preview of application group ID for core use cases such as analysis or fraud prevention. The application group ID is a unique ID that allows you to collect usage or operation status for a group of applications under your organization on your device. You cannot use the app group ID for ad personalization or ad effectiveness measurement. If all the apps corresponding to this developer on the device are uninstalled, or no app has accessed the ID within 13 months, it will also be reset automatically.

Strengthen the protection of children

While we are launching application group IDs for analysis and fraud prevention, we are also further strengthening the privacy protection of children. If the primary audience of , the application cannot transmit identification information such as advertising ID. If an application’s audience includes both children and adults, it needs to avoid transmitting these identifying information to children.

In the coming months, we will share more information to help you complete the transition smoothly.

Enhanced security

Security is the fundamental to achieve privacy on our platform. We announced some policy updates to help ensure user data security.

First, if developers actively maintain their applications, the Google Play ecosystem will also be more secure. Therefore, if the account is no longer active or abandoned for more than one year after dormancy, we will close the dormant account. This includes developer accounts who have never uploaded an app or accessed the Google Play Console in a year.

We will continue to support those applications that are actively growing. We will not close accounts for apps with more than 1,000 installs or in-app purchases in the past 90 days. Developers whose accounts have been closed can later create new accounts, but they cannot reactivate their old accounts, applications or data.

Second, it is very important for users to have a safe and accessible experience. Therefore, we are adding new usage conditions AccessibilityService API and IsAccessibilityTool These tools are used to create an accessible experience and often require access to user data and device features. Now, all applications that use the AccessibilityService API need to disclose the data access situation and purpose in the Google Play Management Center and obtain approval. Please read official document learn more.

about payment policy

Just like our recently shared , after carefully considering the feedback from developers of different team sizes, we provide you with an option. can apply for extend the compliance period by 6 months until March 31, 2022. day.

Please see the complete policy update summary , which contains detailed explanations that can help developers better understand our policies.

Thank you for helping us make Google Play a more trustworthy platform.