You Can’t Trust App Developers’ Privacy Claims on Google Play
WiredIt's basically impossible to keep track of what all your mobile apps are doing and what data they share with whom and when. And a new study focused on the Data Safety information in Google Play indicates that the details developers are providing are often inaccurate. Researchers from the nonprofit software group Mozilla looked at the Data Safety information of Google Play's top 40 most-downloaded apps and rated these privacy disclosures as “poor,” “needs improvement,” or “OK.” The assessments were based on the degree to which the Data Safety information did or did not align with the information in each app's privacy policy. What’s more, a regular person reading it would most certainly walk away with a false sense of security.” Google mandates that all app developers submitting to Google Play complete the Data Safety form. “This report conflates company-wide privacy policies that are meant to cover a variety of products and services with individual Data Safety labels, which inform users about the data that a specific app collects,” the company says in a statement.