Google to soon remove million apps from Play Store without privacy policies

Google has been monitoring many apps in the Play Store which handle personal or sensitive data but lack a privacy policy. The tech giant has sent notices to developers of these apps.

Google has asked developers to fix the issue with their apps by March 15 or has warned that administrative action will be taken. The company will remove those apps from Google Play if they violate User’s data policy.

Google describes the “Privacy Policy and Secure Transmission” in User Data policy, “If your app handles personal or sensitive user data (including personally identifiable information, financial and payment information, authentication information, phonebook or contact data, microphone and camera sensor data, and sensitive device data) then your app must:

1)  Post a privacy policy in both the designated field in the Play Developer Console and from within the Play distributed app itself.

2)  Handle the user data securely, including transmitting it using modern cryptography (for example, over HTTPS).”

Android user’s confidence will get boosted by this move of Google to remove apps that do not follow the guidelines set by the company, as users struggle to find the right app due to the presence of fake ones.